SideSwap: Mobile market reopens, L-BTC redemption suspended

SideSwap: The Liquid network is back on operation, but conversion of L-BTC to Bitcoin is still restricted.

SideSwap announced that the Liquid network has been re-launched and its market transactions have resumed, but there is a key limitation: users are still unable to convert L-BTC back to regular Bitcoin. According to SideSwap, trading and swap functions have returned to normal, but L-BTC redemption services through the Liquid Federation remain suspended.

Core Points

• SideSwap pointed out that the Liquid market has been reopened and all trading pairs and swap functions have resumed operation.
• The service for converting L-BTC to Bitcoin is still suspended pending a security review completed by the Liquid Alliance.
• The reopening of the market does not mean the restoration of redemption functions; the two are independent events.

SideSwap says the Liquid market has been reopened

Liquid is a sidechain of Bitcoin, a separate network connected to Bitcoin. On the network, users hold L-BTC tokens, which are designed to maintain a 1:1 anchored relationship with the bitcoins they actually hold. On September 10, SideSwap issued a statement stating that the Liquid network has begun to be re-blocked and all market and swap functions have been opened.

As a trading platform built on top of Liquid, SideSwap re-opened the "peg-ins" function, the process of converting Bitcoin to L-BTC, on September 11. According to subsequent announcements, one Bitcoin will be credited as an L-BTC and will be credited after deducting the 0.1% fee of the SideSwap standard.

SideSwap also emphasized that the platform does not set the price of L-BTC. The price is determined by the buyer and seller in the public order book. The company warned that significant price fluctuations and lack of liquidity could occur in the first few hours. This is a predictive description rather than a measurement of the actual market reaction.

Other tokens on the network are still operating normally. SideSwap stated that USDt and DePix are independently endorsed by their respective issuers, and the issuance and redemption of DePix, as well as the swaps and market transactions of SideSwap, continue.

The conversion of L-BTC to Bitcoin is still suspended

For holders, this is an important difference: being able to trade does not mean being able to cash. SideSwap said on September 11 that both at the network level and the SideSwap platform level, the "peg-outs"(i.e., transfer from L-BTC to Bitcoin) operation will be closed until the Liquid Alliance completes a security review. In short, L-BTC cannot currently be exchanged for Bitcoin through the alliance.

Therefore, the current channel is one-way. Users can transfer Bitcoin to the Liquid network and convert it to L-BTC at a 1:1 ratio (deducting a small handling fee), but the reverse operation is temporarily impossible, that is, L-BTC is transferred back to Bitcoin.

According to SideSwap, citing data from liquid.network, as of September 11, the number of L-BTC in circulation was 4,229. It should be pointed out that this is an outdated statement issued by SideSwap and is not independently verified real-time balance data.

L-BTC circulation reported: 4,229 L-BTC

SideSwap reported on September 11, 2026, citing liquid.network data, that there were 4,229 L-BTC in circulation. This is an outdated statement, not independently verified real time balance.

Against this supply backdrop, SideSwap reported on the same day that the number of BTC held in the Alliance's stockpile was 3,627. The reserve fund is lower than the circulating supply, which is the reason why the redemption function is suspended. In addition, these reported balance data does not reflect the market price of L-BTC.

Alliance reserves in the report: 3,627 BTC

SideSwap quoted liquid.network data report on September 11, 2026 that there are 3,627 BTC in the alliance reserve, corresponding to 4,229 L-BTC in circulation. These reported balance data neither establish a market price for L-BTC nor indicate that redemption conditions are available;SideSwap made it clear that the "anchor out" operation remains closed.

A previous snapshot by SideSwap on September 10 showed that there were 4,205 L-BTC in circulation and 3,597 reserves. This is another older reading and should not be mixed with the September 11 figure.

Infrastructure provider Blockstream depicts a similar situation. In a status update at 10:00 UTC on September 10, it stated that functional nodes and bridge nodes had been updated and block production had resumed, but transactions were not included at that time, including "anchor out" operations authorized by PAK. Anchoring operations are still suspended.

Issues that remain unresolved in this update

The currently available updates do not say when redemption will be restored. No official source has established a deadline for the "anchor out" restart, the source of funds used to restore reserves, or evidence that a full 1:1 endorsement has been completed.

The claim that the anchoring relationship has been fully restored lacks foundation. SideSwap relayed Blockstream's Adam Back's commitment to the future, but also reported that reserves were below liquidity. Such a commitment does not amount to a completed capital reorganization.

In addition, there is no verified L-BTC price response data. CryptoSlate noted in a September 12 review that there is a lack of reproducible post-restart L-BTC prices, bid-ask spreads, depth, slip indicators or cross-exchange comparisons in public records. Reserve coverage is not equal to a trading discount.

For broad background reference only, Bitcoin was trading at US$77,256, a 24-hour gain of 0.43%. The fear and greed index for the broader market was 63, which was in the "greedy" range. Neither data measures the impact of this Liquid incident.

This situation coexists with other stories of trust and endorsement in the crypto world, from bank-issued stablecoins experiments to the expansion of payment companies, where how assets are endorsed and redeemed is as important as where they are traded. Emerging venues with rising trading volumes face the same core issues.

The practical advice for ordinary holders is simple: If you own L-BTC, you can trade on SideSwap, but currently you cannot convert it to Bitcoin through the alliance. SideSwap points out that users who do not need to use L-BTC can simply wait for the "anchor out" feature to reopen.

Disclaimer : This article is for reference only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. There are significant risks in the cryptocurrency and digital asset markets. Before making any decisions, be sure to study for yourself.