Whitehat Holds $320 Million in Bitcoin Pending Proof of SideSwap Fix

A whitehat hacker is retaining about $320 million worth of drained Bitcoin while developers work to demonstrate that a critical network flaw has been fixed, according to CryptoSlate. SideSwap said the vulnerability enabled the creation of L-BTC that nevertheless passed a valid authorization. The incident occurred while bridge nodes were paused, adding an operational complication to the response. SideSwap indicated that reconciling its reserves would serve as the test for restarting the system. The hacker’s decision to hold the funds means their return remains conditional on developers proving that the underlying issue has been patched. The report did not provide further details on the authorization mechanism, the precise amount of Bitcoin involved beyond the estimated $320 million, or a timeline for the restart. The development is directly relevant to Bitcoin because the assets were drained in Bitcoin, while L-BTC is the affected wrapped asset in SideSwap’s bridge system.