Those responsible for the withdrawal of nearly 4,000 BTC, valued at about US$ 320 million, from Liquid Network returned 3,400 BTC after the fix of the flaw exploited in the attack. Other 598.5 BTC, about US$ 47 million, remain under the control of the group.
The return represents approximately 85% of the bitcoins withdrawn from Blockstream's sidechain. The perpetrators identified themselves as white hats, but there is no public announcement establishing the remaining funds as a reward for the discovery of the vulnerability.
The incident occurred after a flaw in Elements, software used by Liquid, allowed the creation of assets without the corresponding bitcoin backing. These assets reached the network's withdrawal process and resulted in the release of nearly 4,000 BTC.
Part of the negotiation between the hackers and Blockstream took place through messages recorded in Bitcoin transactions. Those responsible made the return conditional on the correction of the vulnerability and sent the 3,400 BTC back after receiving confirmation that the affected nodes had been updated.
Liquid remains paused while the infrastructure is fixed and prepared for resumption. The incident affected the sidechain and did not compromise the main Bitcoin network.
