Boltz founders step aside as unnamed Bitcoin group moves to take over suspended swap service

News Editor

2026-08-12 21:35:29

Boltz said Wednesday that all of its original founders have stepped down and that an unnamed group of 「veteran Bitcoiners」 has agreed to take over the suspended Bitcoin swap service. The incoming operators are expected to bring both capital and engineering support as the company works through vulnerabilities that led to the shutdown. The service was suspended on Aug. 3 after what Boltz described as months of increasingly frequent, intense, and sophisticated AI-assisted attacks. Some of those attacks succeeded and caused losses, the company said, though it added that user funds were never at risk because Boltz operates as a non-custodial service. As of Wednesday, swaps were still offline. Boltz’s web app continued to show 「Swap Services Disabled,」 while its outage notice said the API remained available for cooperative refunds and that unilateral refunds do not depend on Boltz infrastructure. The company also said support remained reachable. Boltz’s documentation shows its software supports swaps involving Lightning, bitcoin, and Liquid bitcoin, with a broader library referencing RBTC, WBTC, USDT, and USDC as supported currencies.

Boltz said Wednesday that all of its original founders have stepped down, and an unnamed group of 「veteran Bitcoiners」 has agreed to take over the suspended Bitcoin swap service.

The new operators will provide capital and engineering resources while work continues to identify and fix vulnerabilities. Boltz said it is not naming the group yet and that the aim is to bring swaps back 「as soon as possible.」

Original founders leave immediately

According to the company, all original founders left effective immediately and will have no formal or authoritative role in the project going forward.

Boltz added that any future involvement by those founders in its open-source software would be voluntary.

Service has been suspended since Aug. 3

Boltz said it halted the service on Aug. 3 after facing AI-assisted attackers over several months, with attacks becoming more frequent, more intense, and more sophisticated over time.

The company said several attacks succeeded and caused losses. It also said user funds were never at risk because the service is non-custodial.

In its Aug. 3 outage notice, Boltz said attackers were iterating faster than its team could find and patch flaws. On Wednesday, the company described itself as a bootstrapped startup with five employees and said it lacked the resources needed to withstand that kind of pressure over the long term.

Swaps are still unavailable

As of Wednesday, the Boltz web app was still showing 「Swap Services Disabled.」 The outage notice said the API remained available for cooperative refunds, while unilateral refunds do not depend on Boltz infrastructure.

Boltz also said its support team remains reachable.

What the documentation shows

Boltz’s API documentation says clients use its REST API to query supported pairs and to create and monitor swaps.

Its official software supports swaps involving Lightning, bitcoin, and Liquid bitcoin. A broader reference library also lists RBTC, WBTC, USDT, and USDC among supported currencies.

The documentation names Aqua Wallet, Bull Bitcoin Mobile, Klever Wallet, and Misty Breez as users of Boltz-related libraries.

At publication time, new swaps were still unavailable.

This article was originally published by Bit.Fan. For more cryptocurrency news and market insights, visit www.bit.fan.

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