tBTC bridge partially resumes as Aave's $120M reserve stays frozen

Threshold said on Nov. 8 that the tBTC bridge has resumed onchain as node operators reconnect on patched systems. New deposits, minting and redemptions remain closed for now. Aave's tBTC reserve on Ethereum is still frozen, with about $120 million in it, according to Cointelegraph.

Details

The bridge was paused on Oct. 31 for security maintenance. Threshold said at the time that tBTC remained fully backed and no funds were lost. The same day, on a recommendation from LlamaRisk, Aave froze the tBTC reserve on its Ethereum V3 Core market: new deposits and borrowing against tBTC were blocked, while withdrawing collateral and repaying debt stayed available. CryptoSlate put the reserve at about 1,760 tBTC ($136.6M) at the time of the freeze.

In its Nov. 8 update, Threshold reported about 4,320 BTC in the bridge wallets against roughly 4,185 tBTC in circulation, verifiable onchain. Deposit and redemption requests made before the pause will be processed as operators come back. The bridge interface will be re-enabled once enough operators are online; until then Threshold asks users not to send BTC to old deposit addresses or resubmit pending transactions. Cointelegraph reports no sign the vulnerability was exploited against nodes, and no unauthorized BTC transfers or token minting.

What it means for the market

The bridge is not yet back to full service, so tBTC can't be freely minted or redeemed and Aave's freeze stays in place. Per Cointelegraph, a LlamaRisk proposal to restore the reserve is tied to operations returning to normal; the timing depends on how quickly operators reconnect.

For tBTC holders the key point is backing, which can be checked onchain. For the live bitcoin price, see the daily brief; for the coin, see the Bitcoin page.