Uniswap Offers $15.5 Million Bug Bounty for v4 Core Vulnerabilities

As a seasoned crypto investor with a penchant for DeFi, I find Uniswap’s $15.5 million bug bounty announcement nothing short of intriguing. With my fair share of experiences in this dynamic and ever-evolving market, I can’t help but appreciate the sheer audacity of such a move.


Uniswap, the leading decentralized exchange (DEX), has unveiled a bug bounty of $15.5 million for detecting vulnerabilities in its v4 upgrade. This marks the highest bug bounty ever offered, outstripping LayerZero’s $15 million incentive.

However, this bounty includes several caveats, and Uniswap will only offer a full payout to a “critical” vulnerability that doesn’t include third-party contracts or applications.

Uniswap v4’s Bug Bounty

Uniswap has announced a generous reward for finding potential flaws in their v4 upgrade’s essential features. The company is particularly interested in uncovering any vulnerabilities within this significant update, as detailed in a recent blog post they published.

Today, we’re thrilled to kick off a record-breaking $15.5 million bug bounty program for uncovering vulnerabilities in Uniswap v4 core contracts. Uniswap v4 has been one of the most scrutinized codebases within DeFi, having undergone nine separate independent audits as we prepare for deployment. In a bid to make it even more secure, we’re going the extra mile by conducting this program.

From my perspective as an analyst, it’s important to clarify that Uniswap’s designation as the largest “bug bounty” ever isn’t entirely straightforward. In the past, some platforms have offered substantial rewards to hackers who successfully recover stolen funds, which is intended to motivate them to return what they’ve found. Last year, Mixin Network labeled their $20 million incentive for hackers as a “bug bounty,” but they may have slightly misused the term in this context.

In this situation, Uniswap provides compensation for finding vulnerabilities, but not for exploiting them. In comparison to a similar initiative earlier this year, Solana’s offer was only $1 million. Essentially, it appears that Uniswap values ongoing security in version 4 as crucial for their platform’s continued prosperity.

Instead, it’s possible that this generous offer stemmed from self-assurance. To clarify, Uniswap underwent nine independent code reviews and organized a $2.35 million security contest. According to Fortune, Uniswap increased its offer from $15 million to $15.5 million in response to LayerZero’s $15 million bounty from last year. In this context, the substantial reward could simply be a show of confidence or one-upmanship.

Regardless of the outcome, this significant bounty carries some crucial conditions. For starters, a hacker can’t cash in on a vulnerability found from any third-party contracts or apps, not even those developed by Uniswap Labs. Secondly, they cannot disclose any unresolved problems that were previously flagged during audits. Lastly, only “critical” bugs will receive the full payment, while less severe issues will earn between $1 million and $100,000.

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2024-11-26 20:59