Liquid Network Halts Operations After $340 Million Bitcoin Theft

Liquid Network has paused operations after a hacker withdrew roughly 4,000 bitcoin valued at about $340 million from its wallet. The settlement exchange, launched in 2018 by cryptocurrency firm Blockstream and used by several crypto exchanges, said the attacker was a “white hat” hacker.

Blockstream said that about 3,400 of the stolen bitcoin had been returned after the reported vulnerability was fixed. Roughly 600 bitcoin, worth about $47 million, remained under the hacker’s control at the time of the update.

Operations remain paused

Liquid Network announced the incident in a post on X on Sunday and said its operations would be suspended until the matter was resolved. The identity of the hacker has not been established.

Crypto media reports said the attacker allegedly exploited a bug to withdraw the funds. The hacker stated that the bitcoin would be returned if Blockstream fixed the flaw.

Former Blockstream executive Samson Mow said on Monday that the company had fixed the bug and that most of the bitcoin had been sent back. He also said the network would remain paused while additional fixes and security improvements were completed before a restart.

A major digital-asset theft

The incident is among the largest known thefts of cryptocurrency this year. The Rekt leaderboard, which tracks cryptocurrency thefts, ranks it among the largest digital-fund heists to date.

The partial return changes the immediate financial picture but does not end the operational response. Liquid Network still has to account for the bitcoin that remains under the attacker’s control and complete the security work it identified before resuming service.

Business implication

For organizations operating settlement or custody infrastructure, the case underscores that restoring assets is not the same as restoring an affected service: operations may need to remain paused until the exploited weakness is fixed and the planned security improvements are in place.