Liquid Hackers Hold Blockstream to Ransom over 598 BTC

Blockstream has refused to pay a ransom to hackers who have been holding nearly 600 BTC on the Liquid Network. The company claims that taking assets without authorization is theft, not white-hat activity.

In a recent development, self-described 'white-hat' hackers withdrew about 4,000 BTC from the Liquid federation wallet on September 6. After Blockstream patched affected bridge nodes, the actors returned 3,400 BTC, leaving 598 BTC outstanding.

The hackers have demanded that Blockstream pay a 10% bounty from its own funds in exchange for returning the remaining assets. However, Blockstream has urged the hackers to return the Bitcoin voluntarily and will work with law enforcement if necessary to recover the stolen funds.