BTCPay offers $190,000 bounty after bitcoin payment servers drained in exploit

BTCPay offers $190,000 bounty after bitcoin payment servers drained in exploit

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BTCPay offers $190,000 bounty after bitcoin payment servers drained in exploit

The project said it will pay 10% of recovered funds, up to 3 BTC, after attackers stole LND credentials and drained merchant Lightning wallets last week.

By

Shaurya Malwa

44 min ago

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BTCPay offers $190,000 bounty after bitcoin payment servers drained in exploit. (Unsplash)

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BTCPay Server is offering a bounty of 10% of any recovered stolen bitcoin, up to 3 BTC, to anyone with information leading to the funds’ return, including the attacker.

The theft stemmed from a vulnerability that let attackers obtain LND Lightning node credentials and drain connected wallets, affecting merchants including Foundation and Citadel21.

BTCPay has enlisted exchanges, blockchain analytics firms and law enforcement to help trace the funds, while urging merchants to report losses and keep most holdings in cold storage.

The flaw was identified by researchers tied to the volunteer Bitcoin Red Team, which is using AI tools to scan bitcoin projects for bugs, and BTCPay is compensating them with BTC donations.

Node provider BTCPay Server said Tuesday it is funding a bounty for the return of bitcoin

stolen from merchants

last week, offering 10% of whatever is recovered up to a maximum of 3 BTC, worth roughly $190,000 at current prices.

The offer is open to anyone with useful information, including the attacker. The project asked people to write to its security address and said secure channels are available on request.

If several reports lead to a recovery, the bounty will be split with the victims according to how much each lost and how useful the information proved.

We're donating 0.21 BTC to

@craigraw

and 0.21 BTC to the Bitcoin Red Team for their responsible security disclosure of the recent critical vulnerability.

In addition, friends and supporters of the BTCPay Server project have committed to funding a bounty to recover the stolen…

pic.twitter.com/qhs8zwoCvM

— BTCPay Server (@BtcpayServer)

August 10, 2026

The project is also paying the researchers who found the flaw, donating 0.21 BTC each to developer Craig Raw and to the Bitcoin Red Team fund.

Attackers exploited the vulnerability last week to obtain credentials for LND, the most widely used software for running a Lightning node, and to drain the wallets associated with it.

Hardware-wallet maker Foundation and the bitcoin publication Citadel21 both reported losing funds. Neither BTCPay nor the victims have published a total so far.

In

a separate post

, BTCPay said exchanges, blockchain analytics firms and law enforcement have offered help tracing the money, and urged affected merchants to report the theft to local police and to any service the funds are traced to.

The

Bitcoin Red Team is the volunteer effort

that began pointing AI models at bitcoin codebases this month and has filed thousands of findings across hundreds of projects, including the report that led to this patch.

Meanwhile, BTCPay advised merchants to keep funds in cold storage and move excess out of hot wallets regularly, "especially during this period of rapid, AI-driven change."

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