An updated look at DeFi audits and bug bounties

The past year in the cryptocurrency industry has been marked by a dramatic increase in total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols. This trend is accompanied by a growing need to ensure that projects maintain the highest level of security and continually check for critical bugs. Many of the top protocols today hold billions of dollars in value, which effectively act as extremely lucrative rewards for malicious actors. As capital continues to flow into DeFi protocols, the incentive for hackers to exploit these new systems grows proportionally. 

Of the top 20 biggest DeFi exploits in terms of USD value to date, 14 of them have occurred in the first quarter of 2021 alone. Most of these exploits occurred with Ethereum-based DeFi protocols, but the attacks on Uranium Finance, Meerkat Finance, and Value DeFi on Binance Smart Chain (BSC) for $50M, $32M, and $21M respectively in 2021 also underscore the importance of securing protocols in DeFi across any chain where capital is locked.