Why rising financial stakes and adaptive threats are forcing Web3 security to evolve beyond audits and alerts
Ten years ago, North Korea's Lazarus Group hacked Sony Pictures over a Seth Rogen movie. These days, they've moved on to plundering billions from DeFi protocols and crypto exchanges.
The shift isn't just about motivation. It's about opportunity.
As a16z's Chris Dixon puts it, the Internet evolved from Read > Write > Own. That final step, the addition of a value layer, didn't just enable new forms of interaction and innovation. It supercharged the incentives for bad actors, creating a more complex and risk-prone digital landscape.
The numbers tell the story. Web3 projects lost $2.71B to hacks, exploits, and private key compromises last year, up from $2.21B in 2024. It's a clear sign of how rapidly attackers are evolving. But here's what's less obvious: defenders are evolving too.
In evolutionary biology, the Red Queen Effect describes how species must constantly adapt just to survive. Competitors, predators, and parasites never stop evolving, so standing still means falling behind.
"It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place," as the Red Queen tells Alice in Wonderland.
Web3 amplifies this effect. The breakneck pace of innovation, combined with transparent blockchain data and adversarial competition, creates an environment where both attackers and defenders must innovate continuously.
The good news? Many obvious exploits (reentrancy attacks, flashloan manipulations, oracle exploits, governance hijacks) have been largely addressed. Protocols that launch today inherit years of accumulated security knowledge.
The challenge? What remains is harder to predict and more sophisticated to defend against.
For years, the gap between the monetary value of onchain assets and the security readiness of Web3 projects was far too wide. That chapter is closing.
Blockchain infrastructure, onchain primitives, and use cases have reached a new level of maturity. More importantly, there's now a security stack and accumulated industry expertise that projects and institutions can leverage to proactively guard against the vast majority of risks.
The evolution mirrors the shift from Web2 to Web3 itself. In Web2, security meant protecting central servers. In Web3, it means safeguarding decentralized networks and assets—a fundamentally different challenge requiring fundamentally different approaches.
Modern Web3 security isn't a single solution. It's a comprehensive posture built on multiple layers:
Three forces are converging to make 2026 a breakout year for Web3 security:
Institutional adoption is accelerating. Traditional financial institutions aren't just exploring crypto anymore, they're deploying capital. That means regulatory scrutiny, fiduciary responsibilities, and enterprise-grade security requirements.
Security tools have matured. Leading real-time monitoring platforms now cover most chains, detect hundreds of risk types with sub-second latency, and maintain vanishingly low false positive rates. Pre-transaction security prevents blind signing. Automated response mechanisms contain threats before damage occurs.
Industry standards are emerging. There's no single security standard yet, but best practices are consolidating. Conversations with 300+ of Hypernative clients, from major blockchains and DeFi protocols to asset managers and centralized exchanges, reveal a shared understanding of what comprehensive security looks like.
The Red Queen Effect means there's no finish line. Attackers will continue to evolve, finding new vulnerabilities in new protocols on new chains.
But defenders now have the tools, expertise, and frameworks to stay ahead—not just react after the damage is done.
This isn't about eliminating risk entirely. It's about building security postures that consistently keep you a step ahead of adversaries. It's about moving from "we got hacked" to "we stopped an exploit before it could execute."
Whether you're launching a DeFi protocol, managing digital assets, operating a blockchain, or building payment infrastructure, the question isn't whether you'll face security challenges. It's whether you'll have the systems in place to detect and respond before those challenges become catastrophic losses.
In the Red Queen's race, the winners aren't the fastest—they're the ones who never stop running.
This article only scratches the surface of the security challenges shaping Web3 in 2026.
We have recently published The Ultimate Guide to Web3 Security, which goes deeper, breaking down how modern attacks actually unfold, what early warning signals look like in practice, and how leading teams are evolving beyond audits and alerts to protect real value at scale.
In the guide, you’ll learn:
Download The Ultimate Guide to Web3 Security:
www.hypernative.io/resources/ultimate-guide-to-web3-security
Reach out for a demo of Hypernative’s solutions, tune into Hypernative’s blog and our social channels to keep up with the latest on cybersecurity in Web3.
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