Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) Layer 2 solution Liquid Network said on Sunday that white-hat hackers drained BTC worth tens of millions from the platform.
What Exactly Happened
Liquid Network stated on X that hackers withdrew nearly 4,000 BTC worth $320 million and that it has paused all bridge activity and new transactions.
“Bridge nodes have been temporarily disabled, so no new transactions can be submitted to the network. Effectively, the Liquid sidechain is paused until this issue is resolved,” the platform announced.
Liquid platform said it has alerted exchanges that have halted deposits of Liquid Bitcoin (LBTC)—a tokenized, 1:1 BTC-backed asset native to the platform.
“Liquid wallets will be impacted, and we’re sorry for any inconvenience. Federation members are actively working on resolving this so we can restore normal network activity,” it added.
‘Contact Us On Chain’
The exploit resulted in the loss of nearly 95% of Liquid Network’s reported Bitcoin reserves, according to the Mempool tracker released by the platform.
The hackers left an on-chain message, saying, “We are whitehats. contact us on chain.”
White hat hackers, also known as ethical hackers or security professionals, use their knowledge to identify and fix vulnerabilities in computer systems.
Liquid Network didn’t immediately return Benzinga’s request for comment.
Surge in Crypto Security Incidents
This incident comes amid a wave of security breaches and thefts in the cryptocurrency world.
Last month, Coldcard Crypto Wallets were hacked, resulting in the theft of $88 million in Bitcoin. The wallet company destroyed all remaining units with the affected firmware installed at its facilities.
Later in August, cryptocurrency wallet provider SafePal confirmed a security breach involving unauthorized access to data for about 40,000 customers.
Price Action: At the time of writing, BTC was exchanging hands at $80,092, up 0.24% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
Photo Courtesy: stockphoto-graf on Shutterstock.com
Login to comment