Industry News

Liquid Network Recovers Most of $320M Stolen in Bitcoin Bridge Exploit

Altcoin Buzz · 8 Sept 2026

Key Takeaway This incident is a reminder for any business relying on bridged or wrapped crypto assets to understand the collateral risks and monitor issuer communications closely during a security event.

Liquid Network has recovered 3,400 of the approximately 4,000 BTC withdrawn from its federation wallet during a $320 million exploit on Sunday, according to updates from Samson Mow. About 598 BTC, worth roughly $47 million, has not yet been returned.

The federation wallet, which backs Liquid's L-BTC on a one-for-one basis, held around 4,200 BTC before the attack and was left with just 197 BTC afterward. This created an immediate collateral shortfall for L-BTC holders. Liquid responded by disabling bridge nodes, pausing network activity, and asking exchanges to freeze L-BTC deposits and withdrawals. Other assets issued on the network, including Tether, were not affected.

The attackers have identified themselves as white-hat hackers and indicated they would return the funds once Liquid fixed the underlying vulnerability. After the network patched the affected bridge nodes, 3,400 BTC was sent back to the federation wallet, and discussions are continuing over the remaining amount.

Summarised by CISO AI from Altcoin Buzz. We link back to every original so you can read it yourself.