Liquid Network Paused Following Large Outflow
The Liquid Network has been temporarily paused after a shade under 4,000 Bitcoin, valued at approximately $319 million, was withdrawn from the platform. Purported white hat hackers claimed responsibility for the event, leaving an unverified OP_RETURN message that stated they are white hats and requested on-chain contact.
Data from the Liquid explorer showed that the federation wallet's balance dropped from 4,200 BTC down to 207.275 BTC. According to the network's normal mechanics, LBTC is burned on the sidechain prior to Bitcoin withdrawals, a process requiring authorization from an 11-of-15 multisig to send funds to an approved whitelist.
Liquid Network announced that the funds were withdrawn via the SideSwap Peg-out Authorization Key, noting that the key and all other keys remained uncompromised. Bridge nodes were temporarily disabled to halt new transaction submissions while the sidechain remains paused.
US Spot Bitcoin ETFs Record Strong Inflows
In the broader market, US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded their strongest three-week inflow stretch of 2026, pulling in $986.9 million during the week ending Friday. This brought net inflows over the past three weeks to a total of $3.8 billion, according to SoSoValue data.
Total net assets across these funds reached $101.3 billion, with cumulative net inflows hitting $55.6 billion. The strong institutional interest coincided with Bitcoin trading just above $80,000.
