Boltz, the famous Bitcoin swap service, has changed ownership after a series of serious AI-assisted attacks. The attacks forced the company to stop its services on August 3. And now, a new group of experienced Bitcoin supporters has agreed to take over the project. The group has not revealed its identity yet.

The new owners will provide money and engineering support, while working to find and fix the security problems that attackers used. Boltz said the attacks had become more frequent, more powerful and more difficult to stop. Some of the attacks were successful and caused financial losses for the company.

However, Boltz said its users did not lose any money. The reason is that Boltz is a non-custodial service, meaning it does not keep users' funds. "The entirety of the risk was ours," the founders said in their statement.

Boltz had been facing attacks for several months before it stopped its services. The company said the attackers were using AI to improve their attacks. They were finding and exploiting security problems faster than the Boltz team could fix them.

"Attackers now iterate faster than a team our size can find and patch," Boltz said in an earlier update. Boltz was run by a small team of only five people. The company was also bootstrapped, meaning it had been built and funded without major outside investment.

The founders eventually decided that their team did not have enough money or technical resources to continue fighting the attacks.

"As a bootstrapped five-person startup, we simply don't have the resources to withstand the current level of attacks in the long run," they said. So the new owners are now taking responsibility for the project.

Boltz had become an important infrastructure provider for several Bitcoin wallets and services, including Aqua Wallet, Bull Bitcoin Mobile, Klever Wallet, and Misty Breez. With Boltz now shut down, these services are facing disruption and are looking for safe and secure alternatives.

Boltz said the group of "veteran Bitcoiners" is bringing both capital and engineering resources. Their first task is to investigate the security problems and repair them. The new team hopes to restart swap services "as soon as possible."

However, Boltz has not announced a specific date for the restart.

For now, the service remains offline. Users cannot make new swaps through the platform.
Some refund-related functions remain available, and Boltz's support team is still reachable.
The change in ownership also means that the original Boltz founders are leaving the project.

The founders said they have stepped down immediately. They will no longer have any formal or leadership role at Boltz, although they might still help with the project's open-source software in the future, but only on a voluntary basis.

In their final message, the founders thanked the Boltz community for its support.
They also thanked companies and developers that were affected by the service shutdown.

"It was a hell of a ride," the founders wrote. They ended their message by wishing the new team well: "Godspeed to the new Boltz team."