Most DEXs are unsafe, alleges new report

14 out of 25 decentralized exchanges, or DEXs, score poorly in terms of cybersecurity, according to a recent report. 

CER’s criteria included several factors such as whether a DEX underwent security audit, the availability of bug bounties and if it had proper SSL/TLS certificates. CER deemed any score below 6 as “low” and, thus, “not safe.” Only two of the DEXs received a “high” score: Uniswap and Syntetyx.

“It is important to note that 6 exchanges (24%) failed to pass a security audit or did not publicly announce that they have undergone an audit. It should be noted that an unaudited exchange cannot be considered safe.”

Some of the 25 exchanges used individual researchers rather than companies — a practice that the report’s authors strongly discouraged. Remarking on the incredible growth of DeFi in the last few months, the researchers concluded that DEX users are more exposed to fraud than hacks:

“Despite the fact that there haven’t been any significant hacks on decentralized exchanges in comparison to centralized platforms, DEX users are actually more susceptible to fraudulent attacks.”