White hat hacker drains ~4,200 BTC from Liquid Network, worth $320M

Someone just moved roughly 4,000 BTC off the Liquid Network in a single peg-out transaction, leaving behind an OP_RETURN message that essentially said: “We’re the good guys. Let’s talk.” The total haul, approximately 4,200 BTC linked to the transaction, is worth around $320 million at current Bitcoin prices near $80,000. Whether this is a rescue mission or a heist disguised as one is the question nobody can answer yet, because neither Liquid Network nor its parent company Blockstream has said a word. What actually happened On September 6, a peg-out transaction on the Liquid Network moved approximately 4,200 BTC back to the Bitcoin mainchain. Around 4,000 BTC were transferred simultaneously in what appears to be a coordinated operation. Embedded in the transaction was an OP_RETURN message, a small data field that Bitcoin transactions can carry. The message identified the parties behind the move as “white hats” and invited further communication on-chain. The nature of the movement remains genuinely unclear. It has not been confirmed whether this was an exploit of the network’s security model, an authorized operation conducted by insiders, or something else entirely. Liquid Network pr...