White hats take 4,000 BTC from Liquid as Bitcoin ETF inflows strengthen

Purported white hat hackers said they took about 4,000 bitcoin, worth roughly $319 million, from the Liquid Network sidechain. Liquid paused bridge nodes and asked exchanges to stop LBTC deposits and withdrawals while it investigates the incident and tries to identify the security flaw. The article says the funds were moved through SideSwap, while Blockstream later said the issue was linked to a bug in the Elements software rather than a compromised key. Analysts noted the coins had not been mixed, which could point to a whitehat extraction rather than a theft, but the situation still raised questions about sidechain security. The digest also reported that U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted their strongest threeweek inflow stretch of 2026, bringing in $3.8 billion over that period. It added that major financial institutions are planning a stablecoin venture, while other crypto stories covered Robinhood’s tokenized stocks, Kalshi’s ban of George Santos, and new concerns about malware targeting crypto users.