tBTC Bridge Resumes Onchain, but Aave's $120 Million Reserve Stays Frozen

Threshold Network’s tBTC bridge resumed onchain Nov. 8 after nine days offline, but about $120 million in tBTC reserves on Aave remain frozen, restricting new deposits and borrowing against the token.

Threshold paused new Bitcoin deposits, tBTC minting and redemption requests Oct. 30 while node operators patched a critical Linux kernel vulnerability that could let remote attackers run code on unpatched servers. Threshold said it had found no evidence that tBTC nodes were exploited.

Patched operators are reconnecting, and Threshold expects pending redemption requests to be processed as more nodes come online. The app still does not accept new deposits, minting or redemption requests, and Threshold has given no date for a full restart.

Aave froze its Ethereum Core tBTC reserve Oct. 31 while redemption routes were disrupted, to prevent exposure from growing. Users can still withdraw existing funds and repay loans. Threshold said bridge wallets held about 4,320 Bitcoin (BTC) against roughly 4,185 tBTC in circulation, with no unauthorized Bitcoin transfers or tBTC minting detected during the pause.

LlamaRisk, Aave’s risk management provider, plans to propose restoring the reserve once Threshold’s operations return to normal.