Summary
- The group involved in Liquid's theft of 4,000 BTC has returned 3,400 BTC to the federation wallet.
- This transfer was made following a confirmation from Blockstream that Liquid’s bridge nodes were secured.
- Approximately 600 BTC is still unreturned, and Liquid has not provided a timeline for resuming normal operations.
The individuals claiming to be “white hat hackers” behind the withdrawal of approximately 4,000 BTC from the Liquid Network have returned 3,400 BTC, equivalent to about $269.2 million, back to the federation wallet, thereby recovering around 85% of the stolen assets.
However, about 598.5 BTC, valued at roughly $47 million, remains in the address associated with the theft.
Myriad: What will Bitcoin's price do next? Share your prediction.The incident unfolded on Sunday when a user transferred 4,000 L-BTC to SideSwap’s peg-out service. The hackers later identified themselves as “white hats” in a Bitcoin transaction message, indicating their intention to assist in fixing security vulnerabilities.
Charles Guillemet, the Chief Technology Officer at Ledger, expressed doubt about the hackers' claims of being white hats, even after the majority of the stolen funds were returned.
“So, 3,400 BTC were refunded,” Guillemet noted on X. “The ‘white hats’ still possess 600 BTC. If this was ever a negotiated bounty under an encrypted contract, it appears more like extortion than ethical hacking!”
Following the withdrawal, Liquid has disabled its bridge nodes and requested exchanges to halt L-BTC deposits and withdrawals.
With nearly 600 BTC still missing, Liquid has not disclosed whether these coins will be returned, how it plans to address any shortfall in L-BTC backing, or when it will resume standard operations for its sidechain and peg services.
BitcoinBTC · USD$79,368−0.58%24H7D1M1YYTD08:00 PM02:00 AM08:00 AM01:45 PM07:45 PM$80.4k$79.8k$79.3k$78.8k24h HighHigh$80,49424h LowLow$78,707VolVol$910.3MMarket projectionsOdds by MyriadThis weekBelow $80,000Below $80k58% chancePrice data by CoinGeckoCoinGeckoMore Bitcoin news and projections →The return of funds followed a series of communications between the hackers and Blockstream, the developers of the Liquid sidechain, through Bitcoin transactions.
The hackers stated, “Please fix the bug first. The chain is under risk at the latest commit right now. Ensure every node is patched. We will safely transfer the money back after confirming the fix.”
Blockstream later issued a signed message confirming that the bridge nodes had been secured, indicating it was safe to return the funds.
Subsequently, the hackers transferred 3,400 BTC to the Liquid Federation address. They had previously indicated a willingness to return “most” of the Bitcoin but have not clarified why they retained the remaining amount.
Blockstream has yet to respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.