Singapore, Nov. 04, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Security budgets are easy to compare. The cost of a critical vulnerability that goes undiscovered is harder to predict, and can be far greater.

In 2026, DefiLlama tracked $8.7 billion in crypto hacks and exploits across the market. During the Q3 of this year, protocols paid researchers $4.6 million on Immunefi programs to find vulnerabilities in their code, up 54% from $3.0 million in Q3 2025. Valid bug reports on Immunefi rose from 273 to 782. Protocols paid $2.2 million for critical bugs, compared with $1.7 million a year earlier.

Those figures reflect different parts of the security picture. DefiLlama tracked incidents across the wider market and did not subtract funds attackers later returned. Immunefi’s figures show researcher activity and payouts on its programs. They do not measure market wide losses. They do show the scale of research protocols funded through Immunefi during a quarter when the cost of exploits remained high.

“The most expensive security decision isn’t necessarily the one with the highest price tag,” said Mitchell Amador, CEO of Immunefi. “When millions are at stake, a single missed critical vulnerability can outweigh any upfront savings. What matters is having skilled researchers looking for what your team hasn’t found, clear program rules that guide their work, and specialists who can separate actionable findings from noise. That’s the value a security partner needs to prove.”

Immunefi is built for protocols that weigh security spending against the value they are responsible for protecting. Its programs connect protocols with security researchers through bug bounties and audit competitions, while triage specialists help teams assess reports and focus engineering time on valid vulnerabilities.

In September, researchers earned $1.46 million on Immunefi, up 103% from September 2025. A total of 278 researchers received payouts, compared with 90 a year earlier. Researchers have received $144.7 million in total payouts through Immunefi as of September 2026.

Protocols can learn more about launching a bug bounty or audit competition at Immunefi.com.

About Immunefi

Immunefi is the security platform for the onchain economy, running bug bounty programs for lending protocols including Aave, Sky, Spark and Compound, and Solana protocols including Raydium, Orca and Pyth. It has helped prevent more than $25 billion in hacks across 650-plus protocols, and it protects more than $180 billion in user funds. More than 85,000 security researchers are part of its community.


wahid@lunapr.io

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