Paradex launched a $500K bug bounty on Sherlock, ten times its previous program. The tiered model and exclusions matter for traders using the platform.
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Paradex, the decentralized perpetual futures exchange on Starknet's appchain, launched a bug bounty program on June 8 with a maximum payout of $500,000 USDC. The program runs through Sherlock, a security platform that mediates disclosures. The previous bounty, which used Immunefi, capped rewards at $45,000.
The new ceiling is more than ten times that figure.
Critical vulnerabilities qualify for the top payout. Paradex defines a critical finding as anything that could enable direct theft of $100,000 or more in user funds or cause protocol insolvency. Researchers earn 10% of the funds at risk, with a floor of $25,000 for any qualifying critical finding.
The program explicitly excludes oracle-related vulnerabilities, issues already flagged in prior audits, bugs in third-party dependencies, and findings that overlap with other active bounty programs. Those carveouts narrow the attack surface the bounty covers. Researchers need to check whether a given vulnerability is in scope before submitting.
The jump from a $45,000 Immunefi pool to a $500,000 Sherlock program reflects a maturing approach to security economics. Bug bounties work on incentive theory: the reward has to exceed what an attacker could reasonably earn by exploiting the vulnerability and selling stolen funds. A $45,000 pool does not cover the opportunity cost for a serious researcher who could sell a critical vulnerability for six figures on the dark web. At $500,000, the math changes. Researchers have genuine financial motivation to disclose problems rather than exploit them.
Perpetual futures are Paradex's core product. These are derivative contracts that let traders take leveraged long or short positions on crypto assets without an expiry date. They are consistently among the highest-volume products in decentralized finance. A vulnerability that compromises the exchange's margin system or liquidation engine could threaten user funds directly.
Paradex has not disclosed how many researchers have signed up for the new program or whether any submissions have already been filed. The program is open and accepting reports.
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