Liquidated: ‘All your Bitcoin are belong to us’
A shade under 4000 Bitcoin worth $319 million has been taken from Liquid Network — with purported “white hat” hackers claiming responsibility. An unverified OP_RETURN message read: “we are whitehats. contact us on chain.”
The Blockstream-run Bitcoin sidechain has been paused as the team attempts to identify the security hole and negotiate the return of funds. The Liquid explorer shows the balance of its federation wallet dropped from 4,200 BTC down to just 207.275 BTC, with 3,998.5 Bitcoin withdrawn.
Under normal Liquid mechanics, LBTC is burned on the sidechain before Bitcoin is withdrawn. The transaction needs to be authorized by an 11 of 15 multisig, and funds are sent to an approved whitelist.
Liquid Network posted earlier today that: “the funds were withdrawn via the SideSwap PAK (Peg-out Authorization Key), but that key was not compromised, nor were any others.”
“Bridge nodes have been temporarily disabled, so no new transactions can be submitted to the network. Effectively, the Liquid sidechain is paused until this issue is resolved.”
Crypto analyst DBCrypto noted that: “the coins aren’t running and they’re just sitting on Bitcoin and haven’t been mixed. That’s more consistent with a whitehat extraction than a theft.” But he said the incident raised some big questions about security on the sidechain. “Either 11 of 15 functionaries signed this off, or the whitelist built to prevent exactly this didn’t hold. Neither answer makes Liquid look good.”
So far Blockstream and Adam Back have not posted about the incident on X. This is a developing story.
Source: Liquid Network
Bitcoin ETF inflows hit $3.8B in strongest three-week stretch of 2026
While Bitcoin is yet to hold above the 50-week moving average that would confirm a bull market, there are other signs bull market conditions are returning. The US spot Bitcoin ETFS have just recorded their strongest three-week inflow stretch of 2026 as Bitcoin trades just above $80,000.
The funds attracted $986.9 million in the week ending Friday, bringing net inflows over the past three weeks to $3.8 billion, according to SoSoValue data.
Total net assets across the funds stood at $101.3 billion on Friday, while cumulative net inflows reached $55.6 billion. On Thursday the Bitcoin ETFs recorded $730.9 million in net inflows, for the strongest showing since Jan. 14.
AMC boss cracks it over Robinhood’s tokenized stocks
Robinhood has been a stunning success so far, leading chains for daily fees and flipping Solana’s 24 hour DEX volume. It’s token launchpad PONS even broke into the Top 100 coins this week with a stunning 140% gain. Part of the interest has been in the Ethereum L2’s pairing of memecoins with tokenized stocks like AMC.
But while crypto degens love it, AMC’s CEO Adam Aron is less than impressed and has threatened to send in the lawyers over the chain’s “outrageous” decision to tokenize AMC stock without his express permission. He wrote on X:
“I find this practice to be contemptible, outrageous, disgusting, detestable, inexcusable, vile. How can it possibly be legal? We have no connection to this at all, and do not condone it in any way. “
Robinhood co-founder Vlad Tenev trolled him by asking blithely: “What’s the concern?” which sent Aron off on another rant about Robinhood’s “shocking and shameful” conduct. He called on them to “CEASE AND DECIST (sic)” and said the SEC could not possibly support Robinhood’s “sham ignoring of US securities laws. You can be sure we will be asking them.”
Robinhood’s chief legal officer Dan Gallagher — a former SEC commissioner — wrote back:
“We know a little something about the U.S. securities laws and will not “DECIST.” Send your lawyers and we’ll educate them.”
What a savage.
Source: Dan Gallagher
BofA, Citi, Goldman Sachs among 21 institutions planning stablecoin launch
A group of 21 major financial institutions plans to establish a new company to develop and issue stablecoins.
The consortium, announced Tuesday, includes Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citi, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Santander, MUFG and Fidelity Investments. It plans to launch a US dollar-denominated stablecoin in the first half of 2027, subject to the company’s formation and other conditions.
According to the announcement, the group ultimately plans to expand into stablecoins denominated in other G7 currencies, with a euro offering identified as its next priority.
In other news that crypto is playing with the big boys now, the G20 member nations put out a joint statement supporting crypto as a transformative way to bring about “broad-based economic growth.” It committed member nations to “advancing responsible and effective regulatory and supervisory frameworks that preserve financial stability, support economic growth, and establish clear pathways for sound digital financial and digital assets innovation.”
cointelegraph.com