Top 7 Crypto Audit Companies
With attacks on the increase, security is critical in the crypto world. Smart contracts are one key component that must be audited. These are self-executing computer programs that include the conditions of a contract between the buyer and seller encoded in lines of code.
These contracts are housed and performed on the blockchain via a computer network, making transactions traceable, transparent, and irrevocable.
Audit companies are experiencing a lot of demand from initiatives in crypto, DeFi, NFT, and the metaverse as more fans join the crypto world every day. Nevertheless, just a few firms provide these services.
What are the top crypto audit companies in 2023? This Coincu article will outline some of the finest blockchain auditing firms, the stages involved in blockchain auditing, and the characteristics to look for in a quality auditing tool.
CertiK
CertiK, or Certified Kernel Tech, is a blockchain security pioneer that protects and monitors blockchain protocols and smart contracts using best-in-class artificial intelligence (AI) technology. CertiK was founded in 2018 by academics from Yale University and Columbia University with the goal of securing the web3 globe. CertiK brings cutting-edge academic discoveries to the business, allowing mission-critical programs to grow safely and correctly.
By successful smart contract audits and security verification for well-known customers such as Polygon, Binance, Yearn Finance, and Aave, the business has established itself as one of the most recognized security organizations in the blockchain market.
Hacken
Hacken is a blockchain security business based in Ukraine that was launched in 2017. In only six years, the company has grown to over 100 workers and over 1,000 clients, which include crypto exchanges, tokens, and decentralized applications. To date, the organization has inspected 1,200 projects, including security work for some of the largest brands in cryptocurrency, including The Sandbox, Aptos, Binance, Aave, Yearn, and Polygon.
This auditor has prioritized community education and the development of Web 3.0 cybersecurity firms. Solana, VeChain, Gate.io, KuCoin, FTX, Huobi, 1inch, and Avalanche are among its clientele. In addition to smart contract security audits, it offers KYC background checks, pentests, and bug bounty programs.
PeckShield
PeckShield is a Chinese security company that was formed in 2018. Its staff members are dispersed over the world and have vast backgrounds in security and many aspects of the blockchain ecosystem. After discovering flaws such as the Ethereum smart contract BatchOverflow vulnerability, the firm has gained momentum. PeckShield is now rated third in the Ethereum Bounty Program internationally.
Many protocols, including Aave, EOS, Tron, OlympusDAO, and PancakeSwap, have been audited by this Chinese audit and security organization.
They did, however, make multiple appearances on the Rekt leaderboard. Popsicle Finance, Value DeFi, XToken, Superfluid, Alpha Finance (co-audited with Quantstamp), Harvest Finance (co-audited with Haechi), and MonoX are some of its exploits (Co-audited with Halborn).
The firm aims to offer end-to-end safety for all blockchain users via its different services, which include penetration testing, threat monitoring, DAppTotal, and CoinHolmes. The firm also educates the audience by often updating its Twitter account with the newest news on loan escapades, enormous slippage occurrences, carpets, and so on.
Slowmist
SlowMist is a blockchain security company that was formed in 2018. An experienced team of attack-defense professionals that switched to the blockchain field formed the China-based smart contract auditing business.
SlowMist’s specialists have over a decade of expertise in network security and have assisted in the security of some of the world’s most significant cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, OKX, Huobi, Pancakeswap, and Crypto.com.
SlowMist, in addition to security audits and other services, provides a number of security-related products, such as MistTrack (a cryptocurrency tracker), Anti-money laundering (AML) software, Vulpush (vulnerability monitoring), and SlowMist Hacked (crypto hack archives). They have served the EOS ecosystem as well as ordinary Ethereum-adjacent networks.
To add value to its services, the company has teamed with worldwide and local security organizations such as Akamai, Cloudflare, FireEye, BitDefender, and IPIP. MistTrack, a system that follows the transfer of stolen cash, is one prominent SlowMist service. It has serviced over 60 clients and recovered about $1 billion in stolen monies since its inception.
Vee Finance, a Slowmist-audited protocol on Avalanche, was struck for $34 million owing to broken contracts. According to Slowmist, the problem arose when the attacker utilized this to alter the price of the Pangolin pool, which acts as the price oracle for Vee Finance, causing the pre-swap slippage check to fail.
Quantstamp
The QuantStamp platform, founded in 2017 by Richard Ma and Steven Stewart, is aimed at auditing Ethereum smart contracts for flaws or possible vulnerabilities. QuantStamp is one of the largest smart contract audit companies.
The objective of the firm is to make smart contracts secure and dependable, as well as to assist companies and organizations in using smart contracts securely and efficiently. Ethereum 2.0, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, and even OpenSea are among the projects they have audited.
Quantstamp has done over 200 audits and protected assets worth over $200 billion for numerous blockchain systems, including BNB Chain, Cardano, Ethereum 2.0, Solana, as well as Maker, Curve, Axie Infinity, and OpenSea.
Yet, several of its accredited projects, such as Alpha Finance, Saddle, and Rari, have been subjected to high-profile breaches, resulting in millions of dollars in losses.
Halborn
Halborn was formed in 2019 by two notable ethical hackers, Rob Behnke, and Steven Walbroehl. Since then, the firm has expanded to include more than 80 highly competent security engineers. Halborn focuses on researching and testing blockchain apps for security flaws and design flaws.
They verify that the smart contract application is ready for mainnet by completing both human and automated testing. The company specializes in Ethereum, Solana, Algorand, Cosmos, Tezos, and NEAR protocols. BlockFi, ApeCoin, Avalanche, THORChain, and Polygon are among their clientele. Apart from smart contract audits, the company also offers cybersecurity advice (Security Advisory As A Service), advanced penetration testing, DevOps & Automation, and DevOps & Automation.
The $31 million MonoX protocol compromise examined by Halborn is another multi-million dollar hack in the DeFi industry, ranking 22nd in size. According to SlowMist, the inability of the swap contract to validate whether the incoming and outgoing tokens in the pool were the same was the primary source of the attack. The attacker was able to take advantage of the price update mechanism, which enabled the hacker to artificially boost the price of the MONO tokens.
ConsenSys Diligence
Consensys is another well-known smart contract auditing company, with over $25 billion in secured assets as a result of its smart contract audits. Their Ethereum service adds value to anything from tiny companies to the biggest protocols in the crypto-sphere.
ConsenSys, founded by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, strives to construct the Ethereum ecosystem’s infrastructure.
ConsenSys conducts smart contract audits via diligence in addition to the popular wallet MetaMask, Infura, a toolset for blockchain developers, and having a venture capital arm to invest in businesses emerging in the industry.
Consensys, which has audited over 100 different firms, assists in scrutinizing and testing every line of code inside your smart contracts by personally double-checking code. When you’re writing, their APIs allow semi-automated continual smart-contract verification.
Consensys is a market-leading auditing company, with clients such as Horizon and AAVE.
Conclusion
Hacking and exploits are as common as ever in the cryptocurrency market, with organizations and individuals losing billions of dollars each year. But, as cryptocurrency becomes more popular and more individuals join the market, businesses are becoming more cautious and proactive by hiring audit companies.
Although smart contract audits may seem to be tedious at first glance, they are critical to make cryptocurrencies a trustworthy asset class. Some of the worst smart contract exploits have been averted by smart contract audits implemented by some of the finest smart contract auditing companies mentioned above, therefore your favorite projects may not exist without such organizations.
As a consequence, there is an increase in the number of crypto audit companies aiming to establish confidence and security in projects and the cryptocurrency field.
While smart contract audits are vital, they should not be considered as a panacea for preventing all types of hacking. Instead, they should be considered as part of a continual improvement process. After an this processs, developers should still do the labor to guarantee that the issues are handled, and they should implement the proper security procedures to reduce the likelihood of new vulnerabilities. Before smart contracts to be trusted by consumers, developers must guarantee that they function as intended. This also includes doing protocol-specific security testing.
DISCLAIMER: The information on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.