- Symbiosis recovered approximately 15 BTC, but its final losses are still being calculated.
- Blockaid reported 46.1 billion unbacked syBTC minted, with approximately $336,000 extracted.
- Bitcoin swaps resumed through external partners while the native bridge stays paused.
Symbiosis said it recovered approximately 15 BTC after an attacker exploited its native Bitcoin Bridge on September 11. The funds now sit in a team-controlled multisig wallet while the protocol calculates its final losses.
The team halted native BTC routes and isolated the bridge. It is contacting affected liquidity providers and preparing a compensation framework.
Symbiosis Keeps Native Bitcoin Bridge Offline During Review
Bitcoin swaps have resumed through Chainflip and THORChain integrations, although the affected bridge has no announced reopening date. Routes involving EVM networks, TRON and TON continued operating, alongside Octopools and the relayer network, according to the protocol.
Symbiosis initially offered the attacker a 20% bounty for returning funds by September 13. The team said the same reward would subsequently apply to information leading to further recovery.
The recovered amount does not establish the total loss or how much each liquidity provider might receive. Eligibility rules and repayment allocations have not yet been published.
Unbacked Token Mint Raises Questions About Final Losses
Blockaid reported that a call to the BridgeV2 contract on BNB Chain minted approximately 46.1 billion syBTC. Those tokens went to a newly created address.
The quantity exceeded 2,000 times Bitcoinās maximum supply, but represented synthetic tokens rather than newly mined bitcoin. Creating unbacked tokens does not mean an attacker can exchange their entire nominal value for liquid assets.
Blockaid estimated that the apparent attacker sold approximately 4.39 WBTC through Uniswap v4 on Ethereum, collecting around $336,000. DeFiLlama recorded the same estimated loss and classified the incident as an unbacked cross-chain mint.
These estimates reflect observed extraction and should not be treated as Symbiosis’s final accounting. The supplied disclosures do not reconcile those proceeds with the larger 15 BTC recovery.
Symbiosis said security researchers are assisting its investigation while the native bridge stays isolated. Affected liquidity providers will receive compensation criteria separately.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. CoinCryptoNewz is not responsible for any losses incurred. Readers should do their own research before making financial decisions.
