Blockstream refuses ransom demand after recovering 85% of stolen BTC from Liquid Network exploit

Blockstream Rejects Ransom Demand After Liquid Bitcoin Exploit | The Defiant

Blockstream rejected ransom payment for 598.5 BTC from the Sept. 6 Liquid exploit, which extracted ~4,000 BTC via a cache-verification vulnerability before partial recovery. Ransom would create precedent enabling extortion of Bitcoin developers—Elements v23.3.4 patches the vulnerability—but non-negotiation stance prevents exploit demands from becoming standard infrastructure governance risk.