RIADeFi
Refusal file · staking

Why Ketju rejected Bedrock uniBTC

Memo v1Published by Ketju Research

A registry memo, published verbatim and versioned. Superseded versions are recorded, never edited away. A rejection is a judgment for Ketju's client base and thesis, not a universal safety claim. Not investment, legal, tax, or compliance advice.

The memo

REJECTED. uniBTC adds a multichain, upgradeable liquid-restaking wrapper to Bitcoin custody and has already realized the exact minting risk that wrapper holders underwrite. In September 2024 an externally callable vault path treated ETH as native BTC and minted 30.8 unbacked uniBTC, causing roughly $2M of DEX-liquidity loss across a vulnerability deployed on eight chains. Later audits and Chainlink Proof of Reserve/Secure Mint controls are meaningful remediation, but they do not justify replacing native BTC with a restaking and bridge claim for this advisor sleeve.

What would reopen the file

  • uniBTC completes 24 consecutive months without a mint, reserve, bridge, or redemption incident after Secure Mint deployment
  • Independent attestations reconcile every uniBTC liability by chain to reserves and disclose all custodians and encumbrances
  • A proposed-size conversion to native BTC completes within a published service level under stressed secondary liquidity
  • Any reserve-feed bypass, unbacked mint, bridge compromise, or redemption pause opens an immediate review

Facts on file

Verdict
Rejected
Exposure
staking
Chains examined
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Merlin, BOB, BSC, Mantle, Base, Bitlayer, BSquared, ZetaChain, OP Mainnet, RSK, Mode, Berachain, Arbitrum, Hemi, TAC, Taiko
Memo version
v1
Reviewed
Next review

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