Cross-chain liquidity protocol Symbiosis announced the recovery of 15 Bitcoin — approximately $1.1 million — following a Friday exploit of its Bitcoin bridge. The platform now promises a 20% reward to anyone supplying intelligence that leads to further asset retrieval.
Symbiosis confirmed that the 15 BTC has been moved into a multi-signature wallet controlled by the team, according to a Friday statement on X. All other routing functions continue to operate; only the native Bitcoin bridge remains suspended.
Blockchain security firm Blockaid reported that the attacker minted 46.1 billion tokens without collateral through the bridge but ultimately extracted net proceeds of 4.3 Wrapped Bitcoin, valued at $336,000. The exploit originated from address 0x025122b60470EEe9e7947fbD922FE0d35F5d3Ba2 on BNB Chain. Symbiosis has not explained how the 15 Bitcoin it recovered connects to the $336,000 figure Blockaid attributed to the attacker.
The protocol initially extended a 20% white-hat bounty directly to the exploiter in exchange for returning the funds. That offer expired Sunday without a response, prompting Symbiosis to redirect the same percentage reward to external informants. The team also indicated it will publish a compensation plan for liquidity providers who suffered losses. DefiLlama recorded the incident at roughly $336,000, though Symbiosis has yet to release a final damage assessment.
Cross-chain bridges remain high-value targets
June saw Secret Network lose about $4.6 million to an infinite-mint vulnerability in its bridge. One month earlier, the Verus-Ethereum bridge was drained of 5,402 Ether — then worth approximately $11.6 million — through a forged cross-chain message. That attacker returned 75% of the haul and retained around 1,350 Ether, worth $2.8 million, after Verus offered a 25% white-hat bounty.
Source: cointelegraph.com