Decentralized finance (DeFi) security platform Immunefi has announced a $5.5 1000000 fundraise from a group of xi institutional investors, including Blueprint Forest, Electrical Capital, Framework Ventures and Bitscale Capital, in addition to a series of individual individuals.

Immunefi will utilize the funds to accelerate its services in DeFi security, providing asset protection to smart contract protocols, as well as implementing financial incentives to benevolent hackers.

The service is reportedly responsible for protecting more than $50 billion in protocol assets from projects such every bit Synthetix, Chainlink, SushiSwap and PancakeSwap. Information technology has paid out $7.5 million in bug bounties throughout its history.

According to analytical data from DeFiYield's "REKT Database," the DeFi space has experienced malicious hacks totaling more than $one.74 billion throughout its lifespan, a vast proportion of which has been witnessed in the months since July 2022.

The $609-one thousand thousand hack of cross-chain protocol Poly Network in early August 2022 bears the undesirable crown for the manufacture's largest-ever hack. Nonetheless, in welcomely unusual circumstances, Mr. White Hat — as they came to be known — returned all of the available funds, the remaining balance beingness the $33 million in Tether (USDT) initially frozen.

Over the by year, the prevalence and severity of fiscal breaches inside the DeFi space have established a surging demand for security services such as Immunefi.

Related: ​​White hat hacker paid DeFi'south largest reported bounty fee

Mitchell Amador, founder and CEO of Immunefi, spoke on the importance of offer DeFi protective measures:

"DeFi is unique because vulnerabilities in lawmaking represent a possibility of a direct loss of users' coin. Bug bounty programs are open invitations to security researchers to find those vulnerabilities in exchange for a reward, and have proved one of the about effective means to deal with critical security holes."

In late September, a $one.05 1000000 bug compensation fee was paid to renowned white hat programmer Alexander Schlindwein in the aftermath of the Belt Finance saga for his instrumental role in preventing a potential $10 million downfall for the protocol. The claim was facilitated through Immunefi's specialist compensation plan.

More than recently, white chapeau hacker Gerhard Wagner pocketed a cool $2 meg for diligently advising a solution to a "double-spend" flaw on the Polygon network, preventing a potentially catastrophic $850 million exploit, with the compensation at present continuing every bit an manufacture record.

Immunefi'southward Amador also commented on the potential affect a service such as Immunefi could have on the wider technology mural:

"We believe that by helping launch such programs on Immunefi, nosotros contribute non but to protecting DeFi projects for today, but as well to shaping the tech industry for the future."