Symbiosis Recovers 15 BTC and Offers Hacker 20% Bounty in Bitcoin Bridge Exploit

In Brief:

• Symbiosis recovered 15 BTC worth $1.15 million, isolated its Bitcoin Bridge, and successfully restored swaps through Chainflip and THORChain partners.
• The protocol offered a 20% recovery bounty while preparing compensation terms for liquidity providers affected by the bridge security breach.
• Blockaid traced 46.1 billion unbacked syBTC tokens, although limited liquidity restricted the attacker’s realized proceeds to approximately $336,000 on Ethereum.

Symbiosis has recovered approximately 15 Bitcoin (BTC) linked to an exploit targeting its native Bitcoin Bridge. The cross-chain protocol values the recovered assets at $1.15 million. It placed them in a multisignature wallet controlled by its team.

A hacker exploited a bridge vulnerability on September 11, forcing Symbiosis to suspend its native Bitcoin routes. Symbiosis also isolated the compromised bridge from its infrastructure to limit further exposure.

However, routes across Ethereum Virtual Machine networks, TRON, and The Open Network remained operational. Its Octopools product and relayer network also operated normally during the security response.

Symbiosis has restored Bitcoin swaps through third-party partners Chainflip and THORChain. Nevertheless, its native Bitcoin Bridge remains paused while investigators examine the underlying vulnerability.

Additionally, the protocol is contacting every affected liquidity provider directly. Its team is preparing a compensation framework and will publish eligibility requirements once assessments finish.

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Symbiosis Offers 20% Bounty for Further Fund Recovery

Symbiosis offered the hacker a white-hat bounty representing 20% of the funds for returning the remaining assets. The initial claim period remained available through September 13. After that deadline, the protocol extended the equivalent reward to anyone providing information that leads to additional fund recoveries.

According to blockchain security firm Blockaid, the hacker exploited Symbiosis’ BridgeV2 contract on BNB Chain. The malicious transaction minted approximately 46.1 billion unbacked syBTC tokens.

That quantity exceeded Bitcoin’s maximum supply of 21 million by more than 2,000 times. However, limited liquidity prevented the hacker from realizing the tokens’ theoretical value. Blockaid reported that the hacker sold approximately 4.39 Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) through Uniswap v4 on Ethereum. Those transactions generated roughly $336,000 in proceeds.

DeFiLlama similarly classified the incident as an unbacked cross-chain mint and recorded a $336,000 loss. Symbiosis has processed more than $10 billion in transactions since launching around five years ago. Meanwhile, DeFiLlama places its total value locked near $7 million. Available data also places the protocol’s recorded bridge volume at approximately $3.19 billion.

Conclusion

Recovering 15 BTC reduces the exploit’s financial impact while Symbiosis prepares compensation terms. Moreover, the bounty supports wider efforts to retrieve the remaining funds.

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