Paradex launches bug bounty program with up to $500K in rewards
Paradex, the decentralized perpetual futures exchange built on Starknet’s first appchain, has gone live with a new bug bounty program on Sherlock, offering security researchers up to $500,000 USDC for uncovering critical vulnerabilities in its protocol. The program launched on June 8, 2026, and is actively accepting submissions.
For context on how seriously Paradex is taking this: its previous bounty program, which ran on Immunefi through mid-2025, had a total reward pool of $45,000. The new ceiling is more than ten times that figure.
How the payout structure works
The program uses a tiered reward model. Critical vulnerabilities, defined as anything that could enable direct theft of $100K or more in user funds or cause protocol insolvency, are eligible for the maximum $500K USDC payout. 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.
What Paradex actually is
Paradex describes itself as a self-custodial trading platform designed to combine the speed and efficiency of a centralized exchange with the transparency that comes from settling on a public blockchain. It launched publicly around 2023 and runs on Starknet’s appchain infrastructure, which gives it a dedicated execution environment separate from Starknet’s main network.
Perpetual futures are the product. These are derivative contracts that let traders take leveraged long or short positions on crypto assets without an expiry date, and they are consistently among the highest-volume products in decentralized finance.
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. At $45K, that calculus was increasingly unfavorable. At $500K, serious security researchers have genuine financial motivation to find and disclose problems rather than exploit them.
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
You may also like
Wall Street giants collectively raise rate hike forecasts, US Treasury futures continue to fall, gold drops over 1% to break 4000
After the US October CPI exceeded expectations, Goldman Sachs and Nomura added a forecast for an interest rate hike in March next year, while Deutsche Bank included a forecast for a rate hike in January next year. Currently, the market has fully priced in a 25 basis point rate hike in December, with a 13% probability for a 50 basis point hike. On Wednesday, the US Treasury spot market was closed, but Treasury futures continued to fall, with corresponding yields rising by about 2 to 4 basis points, and spot gold came under pressure, dropping by 1.1%.
No Need to Worry About the Cooling Down of AI Data Center Construction? The US Import Boom Is Unlikely to Subside in the Short Term, Real Impact May Come in 2029
It takes an average of 4.8 years from finalizing investment to starting construction of a data center project, and an additional 2.6 years from construction start to becoming operational. Servers usually cannot be installed until after the building structure and racks are completed. For trade partners such as Taiwan (China), South Korea, and Mexico who rely on US data center supply chain demand, the inertia in construction timelines provides at least a one- to two-year buffer for future exports.
Federal Reserve Major Debate: When Should the Tenure of “Number Three” Williams End?
The main point of contention is whether Williams should step down in June 2028, upon completing a full 10-year term, or in June 2027, when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 65. Analysts point out that the Federal Reserve Board holds ultimate discretion; if he leaves early, Fed Chair Waller would be able to assert greater control over the appointment to this critical position. However, forcing Williams to shorten his term could easily be interpreted as political manipulation. Williams himself is expected to serve until June 2028.
Crypto prices
More
