Liquid Network Hit by $320M BTC Heist: White Hat Hacker Demands Patch Fix

Liquid Network suffered a significant security incident when $320 million in BTC was withdrawn from its Federation wallet. The hacker used the SideSwap PAK to make off with approximately 4,000 BTC.

The withdrawal was detected and the Liquid sidechain was immediately paused to prevent further unauthorized transactions. Bridge nodes were disabled and exchanges notified to halt LBTC deposits and withdrawals.

The hacker, who claimed to be a white hat, left an on-chain message explaining their intentions and began a public back-and-forth with Blockstream via OP_RETURN messages and PGP-encrypted notes.

Blockstream confirmed receipt of the hacker's proposal to return most of the funds once the vulnerability is patched. As of 9:12 PM PDT, approximately 3,998.5 BTC remained unmoved with no further messages from either side.