Blockchain security firm Blockaid has withdrawn its earlier exploit alert involving the BitTorrent Chain [BTTC] Bridge after determining that a $13.3 million asset drain was part of an authorized internal operation. According to reports from AMBCrypto, the incident unfolded within minutes on Tuesday after Blockaid's monitoring system flagged suspicious on-chain activity that resembled a bridge compromise. The firm initially warned of a potential exploit after detecting approximately $13.3 million in assets, including about 7,285 ETH and multiple ERC-20 tokens, leaving the bridge's Ethereum predicate contracts.
Shortly after the alert, Tron founder Justin Sun replied publicly that the BTTC team had completed the BTTC Bridge Sunset Program. As reported by AMBCrypto, Sun said the bridge shutdown had been finalized as part of an internal operational process, with all user funds remaining safe and users able to continue depositing and withdrawing bridged assets through partner centralized exchanges. The BitTorrent team will shift its focus to decentralized AI initiatives and maintaining the BitTorrent decentralized protocol. Blockaid subsequently updated its assessment, stating that the project team had approved the upgrade and asset transfers and were 'part of internal operation, not an exploit.'
According to Blockaid's analysis reported by AMBCrypto, the BTTC bridge admin Safe executed a privileged proxy upgrade before an address received the CFO_ROLE on the upgraded RootChainManager. That address then called the withdrawAll[address[]] function to drain assets from the bridge contracts. The sequence closely resembled the type of privileged activity commonly associated with bridge exploits, leading Blockaid to classify the event as a potential security incident while investigating. The firm's initial warning came after detecting the suspicious on-chain activity that resembled a bridge compromise.
The clarification aligns with BitTorrent's previously announced plan to retire the BTTC Bridge, as reported by AMBCrypto. In an announcement published on June 12, the project said it would begin a phased shutdown of the bridge, closing deposits from June 13 and completing all bridge withdrawals by June 18. Users were instructed to migrate bridged assets back to their native blockchains before the deadline, with the team saying BTTC's staking, validator operations, and broader network would remain unaffected. The bridge's closure forms part of a broader shift in the project's roadmap, with BitTorrent directing users towards centralized exchange infrastructure for future cross-chain transfers.
