Liquid Network pauses after $320 million Bitcoin withdrawal

Liquid Network has paused operations after actors claiming to be whitehat hackers withdrew about 4,000 BTC, or roughly $320 million, from its federation wallet. The move affected the sidechain’s bridge nodes, which were disabled to stop new transactions, while some assets issued on Liquid remained unaffected. Blockstream, which provides technology for Liquid, said it exchanged signed onchain messages with the actors. According to the messages, the group said it would return most of the Bitcoin after a vulnerability in the Elements software was patched across the network and all nodes were updated. The withdrawal accounted for most of the BTC held in the wallet used to back LBTC on Liquid. At the time of reporting, the funds had not been returned, and Liquid and Blockstream had not provided additional public comment.