Immunefi Pays Over $100 Million to Ethical Hackers, Safeguarding $190 Billion in User Funds

Immunefi, the prominent onchain, crowdsourced security platform, has reached a milestone by paying over $100 million in bug bounty rewards to security researchers in just over three years. This achievement underscores Immunefi's significant role in protecting over $190 billion in user funds for established projects such as Chainlink, Wormhole, MakerDAO, TheGraph, Synthetix, Polygon, and Optimism, among others.

Immunefi has been at the forefront of identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities that could lead to substantial financial losses in the web3 ecosystem. According to Mitchell Amador, Founder and CEO of Immunefi, the platform's success is a testament to the effectiveness of its bug bounty programs and the dedication of its community of researchers. Amador emphasized the importance of their work in preventing financial losses and ensuring the security of the next generation of blockchain projects and users.

The distribution of bug bounty rewards highlights the critical areas of focus for Immunefi. The majority of bounties, totaling $77,973,118 or 77.5%, were awarded for smart contract vulnerabilities. Blockchain vulnerabilities accounted for $18,756,806.72 (18.6%), while web and application bugs received $3,849,014.79 (3.8%).

When examining the severity of these vulnerabilities, critical issues led the pack with $88,344,273 (87.8%) in payouts. High-severity bugs followed with $7,446,570 (7.4%), medium-severity issues garnered $3,243,734 (3.2%), and low-severity vulnerabilities received $997,621.49 (1%). Informational bugs accounted for the remaining $566,289.23 (0.6%).

Immunefi has revolutionized the bug-hunting landscape by introducing a scaling incentive for hackers, where rewards increase with the severity of an exploit and the amount of funds at risk. This innovation has led to a dramatic repricing of bug bounties in the web3 space, making them the largest in the software industry. With web3 being a highly adversarial environment, the need for an effective incentivization system for ethical hackers is crucial, especially considering the ecosystem lost over $1.8 billion in 2023 and $778 million in 2024 year-to-date.

Thanks to its bug bounty scaling standard, Immunefi has built the largest community of security talent in the crypto space, with more than 45,000 researchers. These ethical hackers have earned significant rewards, with some programs offering as much as $10 million for a single vulnerability.

Beyond its bug bounty programs, Immunefi offers a range of services including consultations, bug triaging, and program management for blockchain and smart contract projects. The company recently launched Boosts, a time-bound code review program that ensures top-tier engagement from elite security researchers, and Invite-only programs powered by Immunefi's proprietary data-driven security talent matching system.

Immunefi's contributions to the web3 ecosystem have been pivotal in safeguarding user funds and ensuring the security of blockchain projects. For more information, visit https://immunefi.com.