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Symbiosis recovered approximately 15 BTC following an exploit of its Bitcoin Bridge and moved the funds to a team-controlled multisignature wallet, according to The Block.
By September 13–14, Bitcoin swaps through partner routes operated by Chainflip and THORChain had resumed, but not through Symbiosis’s native Bitcoin Bridge, which remained paused as final losses and a compensation framework for liquidity providers had yet to be determined, The Crypto Times reported.
Bitcoin Bridge exploit halted native BTC routing
Symbiosis said an attacker exploited a vulnerability in its Bitcoin Bridge at about 04:28 UTC on September 11, 2026. The protocol suspended BTC routing in response, while stating that its other routes remained operational, according to a Binance News report.
The affected product was introduced in September 2024 as a two-way native-BTC bridge. Symbiosis described its architecture at launch as including a BTC Portal, relayers, syBTC and a BTC Forwarder, in its announcement.
That native bridge is still paused as of the latest September 13–14 status reports. Symbiosis has not yet completed its loss calculations or set out how liquidity providers will be compensated, leaving the operational and financial impact unresolved despite the recovered BTC.
Blockaid traces unbacked syBTC minting and $336,000 conversion
Blockchain security firm Blockaid reported that the exploit minted roughly 46.1 billion unbacked syBTC. The figure describes the amount of the bridge-linked token created without backing, rather than an established measure of the attacker’s realised gain.
Blockaid estimated that the attacker converted approximately 4.39 WBTC into about $336,000 in proceeds, as reported by The Block. The reported conversion is therefore substantially narrower than the headline quantity of unbacked syBTC minted during the exploit.
The protocol’s pending final accounting means neither the token-mint figure nor the reported conversion should be treated as a final assessment of losses to the system or its liquidity providers.
15 BTC recovery and 20% bounty seek further returns
According to The Block, Symbiosis recovered approximately 15 BTC and placed the funds in a team-controlled multisignature wallet. The protocol offered the attacker a white-hat bounty worth 20% of recovered funds through September 13, followed by the same 20% reward for information leading to the recovery of additional funds. No final total for funds recovered or lost was available in the reported updates, and the 15 BTC figure did not establish that the incident had been fully resolved.
Partner BTC swaps resume while compensation remains unresolved
Chainflip and THORChain partner routes were again handling Bitcoin swaps by September 13–14, providing an alternative path for users seeking BTC swaps through Symbiosis. The native Bitcoin Bridge, however, had not resumed operations.
For liquidity providers, the more consequential outstanding issue is the compensation framework. Symbiosis had not announced final loss calculations or the terms of compensation in the latest update cited by The Crypto Times.
The next material update will be whether the protocol can recover further assets, finish its accounting and set a process for affected liquidity providers, alongside a decision on reopening its native BTC routing.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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