Liquid Sidechain Halts Operations Amid $320M BTC Withdrawal

The Liquid sidechain has temporarily halted operations after approximately 4,000 BTC was withdrawn from its federation wallet by actors claiming to be white-hat hackers.

The withdrawal is valued at around $320 million and was made on Sunday. As a result, Liquid has disabled bridge nodes, preventing new transactions, while exchanges have halted or are preparing to halt L-BTC deposits and withdrawals.

Blockstream, the technology provider for Liquid, has been in contact with the actors through signed on-chain messages. The actors have reportedly told Blockstream that they will return most of the Bitcoin after the Elements vulnerability is patched across the network.