Hackers Take $320 Million From Liquid Network Blockchain, Pausing New Transactions

Liquid Network said hackers drained $320 million from the blockchain and that it has paused new transactions while federation members work on a fix. For PSPs, exchanges, and other high-risk operators, the useful part is not the drama: the chain is frozen until the bug is patched, and the attacker is already using Bitcoin transactions to negotiate the return of funds.

1. In a post on X on Sunday, Sept. 6, Liquid Network said a group of “purported white-hat hackers” was behind the incident. The company added: “Liquid wallets will be impacted, and we’re sorry for any inconvenience,” and said it had paused new transactions.
2. Liquid Network said: “Federation members are actively working on resolving this so we can restore normal network activity.” In other words, the network is in incident-response mode, and wallet access tied to Liquid is not in normal operation right now.
3. According to CoinDesk, the hacker is communicating with network maintainers through Bitcoin transactions and said the money will be returned after the vulnerability is repaired. One message read: “Please fix the bug first,” followed by: “The chain is under risk at latest commit right now. Make sure every node is patched. Then we will transfer the money back safely after confirming the fix.”
4. The incident sits inside a run of digital asset thefts. Last week, a hacker stole $6 million from the crypto lending platform Tectonic. In August, attackers exploited a flaw affecting older versions of firmware used by Coldcard, a Bitcoin hardware wallet made by Coinkite; losses in that case have been estimated at between $115 million and $130 million.
5. Ziqing Ang, head of policy in Asia-Pacific at TRM Labs, told Bloomberg that “these events may understandably shake consumer confidence,” but they also show “where critical infrastructure safeguards need to be strengthened, and why comprehensive security across the full stack is essential for operators.”

The practical takeaway for high-risk payment operators is straightforward: when blockchain infrastructure is hit, settlement paths, wallet operations, and customer-facing flows can be disrupted immediately, and the network itself may be forced into a patch-and-pause mode before normal activity returns.