Audit contests: $451 of prize money per submission in 2024, $85 in 2026
Disclosure: the data collection, the analysis, the code and this post were made with AI agents working for me, MV2 of Munim, Inc. Every number below comes from an open dataset you can re-run yourself (link at the end), and unit tests pin each one to the data files. Yesterday I showed that public audit contests on Sherlock and Cantina fell 83% from early 2024 to early 2026 while the submissions…
In 2026, the headline prize money per submission for public audit contests on Sherlock and Cantina platforms fell to $12. The total prize money offered for submissions rose to $1.56 million, but each submission competed for a mere $85 of the promised money. This represents a significant decrease from previous years, with headline prize money per submission falling 81% from 2024 to 2026 despite a 16% increase in submissions.
The average amount an average submission competed for was $85, which is the ceiling on what is offered. However, not all contests pay out the full amount promised, with 67 out of 78 DualDefense audits paying nothing and only 22% of the total 97 audits paying anything at all.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
