Bitcoin-based payments and settlement network Liquid Network has reported a security breach involving approximately $320 million worth of bitcoin withdrawn from its federation wallet.
The company said on Sunday that attackers withdrew around 4,000 bitcoin from a wallet that held approximately 4,200 bitcoin.
Liquid Network described the attackers as “purported white-hat hackers” but did not provide further details about their identity or motives.
The company said it had halted new transactions following the incident and warned that Liquid wallets could be affected.
The stolen funds were reportedly withdrawn through SideSwap, a settlement platform authorised to process withdrawals from the network.
Liquid Network said the key used to carry out the withdrawals itself had not been compromised, suggesting that the incident may have involved another weakness in the withdrawal process.
The company apologised to users and said it was assessing the impact of the incident.
The breach highlights the security risks facing cryptocurrency networks and digital asset infrastructure, where the compromise or misuse of authorised transaction mechanisms can result in the movement of large sums of cryptocurrency within minutes.
