‘White hats’ take 4000 BTC from Liquid, ETFs see best week of 2026: Hodler’s Digest

Purported white hat hackers have taken 4000 Bitcoin from the Liquid sidechain in a major security breach. The Bitcoin ETFs see the best three weeks of inflows in 2026.

A shade under 4000 Bitcoin worth $319 million has been taken from Liquid Network — with purported “white hat” hackers claiming responsibility. An unverified OP_RETURN message read: “we are whitehats. contact us on chain.”  

The Blockstream-run Bitcoin sidechain has been paused as the team attempts to identify the security hole and negotiate the return of funds. The Liquid explorer shows the balance of its federation wallet dropped from 4,200 BTC down to just 207.275 BTC, with 3,998.5 Bitcoin withdrawn.

Under normal Liquid mechanics, LBTC is burned on the sidechain before Bitcoin is withdrawn. The transaction needs to be authorized by an 11 of 15 multisig, and funds are sent to an approved whitelist.    

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