LayerZero and Immunefi Launch Largest Crypto Bug Bounty Program With Up to $15M in Rewards

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LayerZero Labs, the team behind the LayerZero cross-chain messaging protocol, has teamed up with bug bounty and security services platform Immunefi to launch a $15 million bug bounty for its protocol, Bryan Pellegrino, co-founder and CEO of LayerZero, told TechCrunch exclusively.

The Bug Bounty alliance will offer a maximum reward of $15 million for each new vulnerability discovered by hackers. The platform has announced bug bounties in the past, but none are that big, Pellegrino said.

The $15 million maximum reward also makes it the largest bug bounty program in the crypto ecosystem, surpassing MakerDAO’s $10 million program.

We have enough money to pay a lot of bonuses. Protocol security comes before anything else, Pellegrino said. The reward money will come from LayerZero Labs’ equity entity, Pellegrino added.

Immunefi claims to provide security services for over $60 billion in user funds across crypto-based projects and businesses like Polygon, Synthetix, Chainlink, SushiSwap, MakerDAO, and Optimism. To date, it has paid out over $75 million in bug bounty rewards.

Last month, LayerZero raised $120 million in a Series B round at a $3 billion valuation. Unlike web 2.0 messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram, its messaging protocol allows users to send different types of messages across blockchains, such as cross-chain interactions, eliminating the need for middlemen. LayerZero connects over 30 mainnet blockchains, including two non-Ethereum virtual machines (EVMs) and Aptos.

Over the past year, the crypto ecosystem has lost an estimated $9.33 trillion to exploits, hacks and scams, with just under $1 trillion recovered, according to the database. De.Fis REKT.

Over $3.9 billion was lost last year, according to the Immunefis Crypto Losses 2022 report. in 2021, when more than $8 billion was stolen, according to the report.

In 2022, the majority of losses, or $3.77 billion, were due to hacks in 134 specific incidents. About $175 million was lost to fraud in 34 incidents during the same period.

Launched in March 2022, LayerZero has seen more than $15 billion in transaction volume in its 14 months so far, Pellegrino said. Since its inception, the messaging protocol has never had a security or hacking exploit, he added.

LayerZero spent about $5 million auditing last year to ensure its security, and it aims to follow a process to ensure the security of its codes before release, Pellegrino said.

Even though the market is registering fewer losses, the number of losses is still huge. In March, hackers stole around $200 million from crypto lending platform Euler Finance. Although that sounds like a lot of money and is only the 26th biggest crypto heist of all time, De.Fi data showed.

For anyone building in space, safety should be the top priority, Pellegrino said. If you don’t have good security, you will end up being hacked.

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