Emily Nicolle advocates bounty programs to combat crypto hackers

When hackers steal $320 million in Bitcoin and then return most of it after a public blockchain negotiation, the crypto industry has a terminology problem. Was it a heist? A shakedown? An unsolicited security audit with a very aggressive invoice? Bloomberg reporter Emily Nicolle thinks it’s closer to old-fashioned extortion, and she’s making the case that structured bounty programs are the better alternative to the chaotic negotiate-after-the-fact approach that keeps playing out across crypto. The Liquid Network hack and its uncomfortable resolution The incident at the center of Nicolle’s argument involved the Liquid Network, which saw attackers drain $320 million in Bitcoin between September 6 and September 8, 2026. What followed was less a recovery operation and more a hostage negotiation conducted entirely on-chain. The hackers communicated their demands publicly via blockchain messages. After back-and-forth exchanges visible to anyone watching, they returned approximately $266.5 million of the stolen funds. The remaining balance, roughly 598.5 BTC valued at about $47 million, was kept by the attackers as what amounted to a self-awarded bounty. In her September 11 opinion piece,...