High white hats searching vulnerabilities throughout decentralized protocols in Web3 are incomes tens of millions, dwarfing the $300,000 wage ceiling in conventional cybersecurity roles.
“Our leaderboard reveals researchers incomes tens of millions per yr, in comparison with typical cybersecurity salaries of $150-300k,” Mitchell Amador, co-founder and CEO of bug bounty platform Immunefi, instructed Cointelegraph.
In crypto, “white hats” refers to moral hackers paid to reveal vulnerabilities in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. In contrast to salaried company roles, these researchers select their targets, set their very own hours and earn based mostly on the affect of what they discover.
Thus far, Immunefi has facilitated greater than $120 million in payouts throughout 1000’s of stories. Thirty researchers have already turn into millionaires.
“We’re defending over $180 billion in whole worth locked throughout our packages,” Amador mentioned, including that the platform provides bounties of as much as 10% for crucial bugs. “These million-dollar payouts replicate the truth that many protocols have tens or a whole bunch of tens of millions at stake from single vulnerabilities,” he mentioned.
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$10 million bug bounty saved billions
The biggest 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 mentioned that vulnerability might have vaporized billions.
Regardless of that vulnerability being uncovered, Wormhole suffered a $321 million exploit on its Solana bridge in 2022, the biggest crypto hack of the yr. In Feb. 2023, Web3 infrastructure agency Soar Crypto and Oasis.app carried out a “counter exploit” on the Wormhole protocol hacker, clawing again a complete of $225 million.
Amador revealed that crucial vulnerabilities account for the most important rewards. High 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 mentioned.
Whereas the early years of DeFi had been affected by sensible contract bugs, 2025 has seen an increase in “no-code” exploits like social engineering, compromised keys, and lapses in operational safety. Regardless of that shift, bridges stay essentially the most profitable targets because of their crosschain complexity and the huge sums they safe.
Patterns have emerged within the kinds of initiatives that get breached most frequently. “DeFi protocols dealing with important TVL and missing sturdy bounty packages are essentially the most uncovered,” Amador mentioned. He warned that early-stage groups dashing to market with out safety measures, in addition to complacent established gamers, carry elevated dangers.
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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. Regardless of the spike, general incidents trended downward, with solely 16 assaults recorded in comparison with 20 in June.
Nearly all of losses got here from two main incidents. These embody a $91 million social engineering rip-off concentrating on a Bitcoiner and a $50 million breach of Turkish trade Btcturk.
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