New SEAL report shows whitehats saved $52M during live crypto hacks
A new database of known whitehat rescues has revealed that these ethical hackers helped blockchain-powered protocols save at least $51.9 million in crypto assets across 11 instances over the past three years.
A new database of known whitehat rescues has revealed that these ethical hackers helped blockchain-powered protocols save at least $51.9 million in crypto assets across 11 instances over the past three years.
The page, launched by crypto security experts from the Security Alliance (SEAL) under their Safe Harbour project, details all the known cases and encourages others to submit additional instances of whitehat rescues.
The largest value saved belongs to a group of individual whitehats who helped save $33 million during the Nomad bridge hack in 2022, when it lost more than $190 million. Next on the list is Blocksec, a crypto security company that prevented $5 million from being stolen from the NFT lending project Paraspace on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain in 2023. Blocksec is mentioned four times on the list, with a total value saved of $13.5 million.
Meanwhile, four whitehats, Copra, Polygon Whitehat, BitFinding, and Base Whitehat, helped the Balancer protocol save $3.8 million during two incidents in 2024 and 2025 across different blockchains.
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The last three whitehat cases, related to the $117 million Balancer hack this November, were filed under the Safe Harbour initiative, which was designed by SEAL to enable whitehats to protect vulnerable funds.
"By joining, protocols can set up clear asset recovery procedures, including recovery addresses and bounty terms. This initiative provides legal protection for whitehats, allowing them to secure at-risk assets without fear of legal consequences," the security experts said.
According to them, the initiative is similar to a bug bounty program but focuses on active exploits, when a vulnerability is still being exploited by criminals.
Currently, 18 protocols have signed up for the initiative to better protect $63.6 billion in assets. The largest on the list is the decentralized finance (DeFi) giant Aave, with a total value locked of $51.4 billion, representing the value of all tokens locked on this platform by crypto users to generate yield, lend, and other purposes.
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