Liquid Hackers Return Most Stolen Bitcoin, Leave $47M Behind

The hackers who breached Liquid's Bitcoin bridge last week returned 85% of the stolen coins on Monday, sending 3,400 BTC back to the network. This move comes after the attackers set a condition for their return: that Blockstream would patch the vulnerability and update all nodes running the bridge.

Blockstream responded promptly, signing a message within a Bitcoin transaction on Monday morning and assuring recipients that the funds were safe to send back. Hours later, the transfer was recorded in block 965,950 at 19:09 UTC.

Although the hackers returned most of the stolen coins, approximately 600 BTC remains in their possession, worth around $47 million at Monday's Bitcoin price near $79,100. The reason for this remaining stash is unclear, and neither side has offered an explanation.

Liquid users are still waiting to see when service will resume after the bridge was shut off and exchanges were asked to freeze L-BTC deposits and withdrawals.