AI Attack Freezes Boltz, Rattles Lightning Network Users

Boltz, a company that lets people move bitcoin between the main blockchain, the Lightning Network, and the Liquid sidechain, shut down all of its swap services on Aug. 3 after months of automated attacks it said were increasingly powered by artificial intelligence (AI). The timing rattled bitcoiners because the disclosure landed almost alongside the Coldcard disaster, where a firmware failure had already emptied wallets and shattered confidence.

No customer funds were lost. Boltz never held user money directly. It relies on a system called hash time-locked contracts, which let two parties swap assets without either one taking custody of the other’s funds first. Users can still recover their money on their own, even with Boltz offline, and the company’s support channels remain open. Boltz covered the cost of the attacks that did get through.

The shutdown hit fast because several popular bitcoin wallets had built their Lightning features on top of Boltz’s infrastructure rather than running their own.

Zeus Wallet, which ran its own copy of Boltz’s open-source software, shut down its version of the service too. The company said its channel-based Lightning service and Lightning addresses still work normally. Blockstream also turned off in-app swaps in its wallet because of its reliance on Boltz, while keeping the rest of its Liquid features running.

Francisco Calderón, who built the peer-to-peer Lightning bots lnp2pBot and mostroP2P, said his own projects have faced constant attacks since launch and that his team now reviews code with AI assistance to keep up. He argued that if attack volume ever outpaces his team’s ability to respond, he would shut the bot down rather than risk it. Only his own node’s funds, not users’ money, would be at risk in that scenario.

Boltz gave no timeline for restoring service as of Aug. 4. Aqua, Bull Bitcoin, Blockstream and Zeus are all now searching for backup swap providers or building redundancy so a single company’s outage can’t take down their Lightning features again. Bitcoin.com News is watching for updates from Boltz on when swaps might resume, whether alternative providers step in to fill the gap, and whether other small teams follow Calderón’s warning that AI-driven attacks could force them offline too.