Liquid attackers returned 3,400 BTC, with approximately 600 still not returned

Self-proclaimed "white hat hackers" extracted about 4,000 BTC from Liquid Network and have returned 3,400 BTC (approximately $269.2 million) to the federal wallet of the sidechain on Monday, recovering about 85% of the funds. The incident began on Sunday when a customer sent 4,000 L-BTC to SideSwap's peg-out service. The attackers claimed to be "white hat hackers" through Bitcoin transaction messages and demanded that the vulnerability be fixed first. Blockstream then sent a signed message stating that "the bridging node has been patched and funds can be safely returned," after which the attackers transferred the funds. Nevertheless, about 598.5 BTC (approximately $47 million) remains in the related address. Ledger's Chief Technology Officer Charles Guillemet expressed skepticism about the "white hat" claim, stating that if this were a negotiated reward under on-chain crypto contracts, it looked more like extortion. Liquid has disabled the bridging nodes and requested exchanges to suspend L-BTC deposits and withdrawals, but has not yet announced a plan for handling the remaining funds or when normal operations will resume.