Bridge Incident Registry
Incident case

pNetwork 2021 pBTC-on-BSC exploit

A bug in pNetwork's Rust event-log extraction caused malicious peg-out requests to be processed on the pBTC-on-BSC bridge. The attacker stole 277 BTC collateral; other pTokens bridges were stopped and were not successfully drained.

reviewedcurrent

Incident facts

Incident title
pNetwork 2021 pBTC-on-BSC exploit
Bridge
pNetwork
Incident date
2021-09-19
Incident type
Exploit
Major incident
Yes
Affected chains
Bitcoin, BNB Chain
Affected assets
BTC
Attack category
Event Log Parsing Bug
Reported loss
277 BTC
Recovery
None Confirmed
Reimbursement
Announced
Restart
Partial Reopen
Current outcome
Bridge Family Later Deprecated
Resolution
Unresolved
Last reviewed
2026-06-15
Last verified
2026-06-15

Timeline events

  • pBTC-on-BSC exploited and pNetwork bridges paused2021-09-19

    The team stopped all bridges after detecting the pBTC-on-BSC exploit and reported 277 BTC stolen from collateral.

    Exploit Detected And Bridges PausedHigh

  • Fix deployed and unaffected bridges gradually reactivated2021-09-19

    pNetwork implemented a fix and gradually reactivated unaffected bridges after additional review and security checks.

    Fix Deployed And Gradual ReactivationHigh

  • pNetwork announced a community compensation process2021-09-21

    The postmortem said DAO proposals would be used to develop compensation for current pBTC-on-BSC holders.

    Compensation Process AnnouncedHigh

Evidence records

Known unknowns