Liquid Network Sees $270M Bitcoin Return Following White-Hat Hacker Negotiations

Blockstream and Liquid Federation are breathing a sigh of relief after hackers returned $270 million in Bitcoin to their wallet following a security incident on Sunday. The return of approximately 85% of the withdrawn funds restores much of the backing removed from the paused network.

The hackers, who identified themselves as 'white hats,' initially withdrew around 4,000 BTC from the federation's reserves, leaving about $320 million behind. After Blockstream confirmed that the affected bridge nodes had been patched, the hackers returned roughly 3,400 BTC to the federation's wallet address.

According to JAN3 CEO Samson Mow, around 598 BTC remains outstanding, and Blockstream is continuing to engage with the actors. The return of funds follows onchain negotiations between Blockstream and the hackers, who had agreed to return most of the stolen Bitcoin once the vulnerability was fixed and every node had installed the patch.

Charles Guillemet, Ledger's chief technology officer, questioned the 'white-hat' description after the partial return, suggesting that the arrangement looked more like extortion than hacking. However, neither Blockstream nor Liquid publicly described the outstanding Bitcoin as a bounty or disclosed any repayment terms.