Liquid Network pauses after $320M Bitcoin withdrawal

• Liquid Network has paused activity after about 4,000 Bitcoin worth $320 million was withdrawn from its federation wallet.
• Exchanges have suspended or plan to suspend LBTC deposits and withdrawals following the security incident.
• Liquid is working to contact the parties involved while federation members work to restore normal network activity.

Liquid Network has paused its Bitcoin sidechain after about 4,000 Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) worth $320 million was withdrawn from its federation wallet.

Liquid said the withdrawal came through the SideSwap Peg-out Authorisation Key, but the key itself was not compromised.

“we are whitehats. contact us on chain,” an on-chain message linked to the withdrawal said.

Liquid has not identified the parties involved or confirmed whether the withdrawn Bitcoin will be returned.

Exchanges have suspended or plan to suspend LBTC deposits and withdrawals, while Liquid has temporarily disabled bridge nodes.

Other assets issued on Liquid, including USDT, DePix and real-world asset tokens, were unaffected by the incident, the network said.

Liquid is a Bitcoin sidechain designed for faster and confidential transfers, with federation members securing the Bitcoin backing its LBTC token.

At the time of reporting, Bitcoin price was $80,277.16.