Top white hats looking vulnerabilities throughout decentralized protocols in Web3 are incomes thousands and thousands, dwarfing the $300,000 wage ceiling in conventional cybersecurity roles.
“Our leaderboard reveals researchers incomes thousands and thousands per yr, in comparison with typical cybersecurity salaries of $150-300k,” Mitchell Amador, co-founder and CEO of bug bounty platform Immunefi, informed Cointelegraph.
In crypto, “white hats” refers to moral hackers paid to reveal vulnerabilities in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. Unlike salaried company roles, these researchers select their targets, set their very own hours and earn based mostly on the impression of what they discover.
So far, Immunefi has facilitated greater than $120 million in payouts throughout hundreds of experiences. Thirty researchers have already grow to be millionaires.
“We’re defending over $180 billion in whole worth locked throughout our applications,” Amador stated, including that the platform gives bounties of as much as 10% for important bugs. “These million-dollar payouts mirror the fact that many protocols have tens or a whole bunch of thousands and thousands at stake from single vulnerabilities,” he stated.
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$10 million bug bounty saved billions
The largest single payout to a Web3 white hat was $10 million, awarded to a hacker who discovered a deadly flaw in Wormhole’s crosschain bridge. Amador stated that vulnerability might have vaporized billions.
Despite that vulnerability being uncovered, Wormhole suffered a $321 million exploit on its Solana bridge in 2022, the most important crypto hack of the yr. In Feb. 2023, Web3 infrastructure agency Jump Crypto and Oasis.app performed a “counter exploit” on the Wormhole protocol hacker, clawing again a complete of $225 million.
Amador revealed that important vulnerabilities account for the largest rewards. Top researchers have pulled in between $1 million and $14 million, relying on the severity and scope of their findings. “These are the 100x hackers who can discover vulnerabilities others miss,” he stated.
While the early years of DeFi have been tormented by sensible contract bugs, 2025 has seen an increase in “no-code” exploits like social engineering, compromised keys, and lapses in operational safety. Despite that shift, bridges stay essentially the most profitable targets resulting from their crosschain complexity and the huge sums they safe.
Patterns have emerged within the sorts of initiatives that get breached most frequently. “DeFi protocols dealing with vital TVL and missing sturdy bounty applications are essentially the most uncovered,” Amador stated. He warned that early-stage groups dashing to market with out safety measures, in addition to complacent established gamers, carry elevated dangers.
Related: DeFi whale loses $40M as Kinto winds down and SwissBorg suffers hack: Finance Redefined
Crypto hackers stole $163 million in August
As Cointelegraph reported, crypto-related hacks and scams hit $163 million in losses in August, a 15% rise from July’s $142 million. Despite the spike, general incidents trended downward, with solely 16 assaults recorded in comparison with 20 in June.
The majority of losses got here from two main incidents. These embody a $91 million social engineering rip-off focusing on a Bitcoiner and a $50 million breach of Turkish alternate Btcturk.
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