Hacker steals about $340M from crypto network, then returns most of it

A hacker stole thousands of bitcoins worth about $340 million from Liquid Network, a settlement exchange used by several cryptocurrency exchanges, in one of the largest known crypto thefts of the year. Liquid Network, launched in 2018 by crypto firm Blockstream, said on X on Sunday that a “white hat” hacker took the funds from the network’s wallet and that it has paused operations until the incident is resolved.

The hacker’s identity isn’t yet known, but crypto media reports say they allegedly exploited a bug to withdraw the funds, and the hacker said they would return the money if Blockstream fixed the bug. Former Blockstream executive Samson Mow said on X on Monday that the company had fixed the bug, and that around 3,400 of the roughly 4,000 stolen bitcoins had been returned. The remaining roughly 600 bitcoins, worth about $47 million, are still under the hacker’s control. Mow said operations will stay paused until additional fixes and security improvements are made before restarting.

The theft ranks as one of the largest heists of digital funds to date, according to the Rekt leaderboard, which tracks cryptocurrency thefts.

Why it matters

The partial recovery underscores how exposed even settlement-layer crypto infrastructure remains to exploits, even as this case shows attackers sometimes negotiate a return rather than cash out in full.