What OtterSec does

OtterSec (legally Otter Audits LLC) is a private blockchain security firm founded in 2022 and headquartered in Chicago, operating with an 11-50 person team. The company provides professional security services spanning smart contract audits, white- and black-box penetration testing, formal verification, advanced fuzzing, and incident response across multiple blockchain ecosystems, with particular depth in Solana, Sui, Aptos, Near, and EVM-compatible chains. Its technical differentiation rests on proprietary open-source tooling — including a Solana Binary Ninja plugin, a novel Anchor formal verification framework, differential transactional fuzzers for Solana validators, an rBPF JIT fuzzer, a Move VM bytecode fuzzer, and an agentic Rust reverse engineering tool — supported by published research and conference presence at events such as Breakpoint 2023 and DevConnect 2023.

The business operates as a professional services firm on a custom, quote-based pricing model tied to project complexity, duration, and risk surface, with no publicly listed tiers and no self-service purchasing. Go-to-market is sales-led and direct: prospective clients initiate engagement through the company website and proceed through a structured 6-step process. Customer base spans Layer 1 foundations (Solana Foundation, Sui Foundation, Aptos Labs, Algorand, Stellar, Fuel, Movement), major wallets and stablecoin issuers (MetaMask, Backpack, Tether, Circle), cross-chain infrastructure providers (LayerZero, Wormhole), and prominent DeFi protocols (Jupiter, Jito, Kamino, Raydium, Pyth, Squads, Marginfi, Tensor). Cumulative disclosed outcomes include $36.82B+ in on-chain TVL secured across 120+ audited projects, $1B+ in vulnerabilities remediated, and 66% of findings classified as core issues. The company is a founding member of the Solana Incident Response Network (SIRN) and co-developed the EVMbench AI-vulnerability benchmark with OpenAI and Paradigm.

Name

OtterSec

Legal name

Otter Audits LLC

Website

https://osec.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

OtterSec is a blockchain security firm offering smart contract audits, formal verification, fuzzing, and incident response across Solana, Sui, Aptos, EVM, and other ecosystems, serving L1 foundations, DeFi protocols, stablecoin issuers, and major wallets.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Blockchain Security Auditing

NAICS

Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services (5416), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Security Systems Services (56162)

SIC

Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Testing Laboratories (8734)

akta.pro primary industry

Smart Contract Auditing & Formal Verification (FSAPAJAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Security Testing Tooling (SAST/DAST for smart contracts, fuzzing) (FSAPAJAK), Monitoring, Observability & Incident Response (alerts, traces, runtime monitoring) (FSAPABAJ), Digital Asset Risk, Security & Audit Tooling (Smart Contract Audit, Threat Monitoring) (FSAGAMAJ)

Keywords

• Smart contract security audits
• Blockchain security auditing
• Formal verification services
• Penetration testing services
• Incident response services

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Security Audit Services: Professional services engagement model where OtterSec conducts comprehensive security audits of blockchain protocols, smart contracts, and Web3 applications. Pricing based on expected duration, potential vulnerabilities, and overall project complexity. Follows a structured 6-step process from exploratory discussion through ongoing post-audit updates.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

OtterSec provides professional blockchain and smart contract security audits, pentesting, formal verification, fuzzing, and incident response services across multiple blockchain ecosystems including Solana, Sui, Aptos, EVM-compatible chains, Cosmos, and Near. The firm applies proprietary tooling and novel research methodologies to audit DeFi protocols, bridges, wallets, core foundation code, compilers, and ZK-based systems, protecting $36.82B+ in on-chain TVL across 120+ audited projects.

Product overview

OtterSec operates as a blockchain security auditing firm offering a unified suite of security services. Their core offerings include Security Audits, Pentesting (white and black box), Formal Verification, Fuzzing, and Incident Response. These services are applied across multiple blockchain ecosystems including Solana, EVM-compatible chains, Sui, Aptos, Cosmos, and Near. The company specializes in DeFi protocols, bridges, wallets, NFTFi, backends, compilers, and ZK-based systems. The company is part of the Solana Incident Response Network (SIRN) coalition for coordinated threat response.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Security Audits Comprehensive security audits for smart contracts and blockchain protocols, protecting blockchain projects across multiple ecosystems. The firm has secured over $36.82B in on-chain TVL and patched over $1B in vulnerabilities across 120+ projects, with 66% of findings categorized as core issues.
• Pentesting White box and black box penetration testing services for blockchain and Web3 applications, including analysis of the relationship between Web3 applications and Web2 attack surfaces such as MetaMask Snaps sandboxing environments.
• Formal Verification Formal verification services using OtterSec's proprietary tooling and a novel verification framework for Solana Anchor programs, including formal verification of the Aptos core standard library.
• Fuzzing Advanced fuzzing services including differential compiler fuzzers for Vyper, differential transactional fuzzers for Solana validators, rBPF JIT fuzzers, and Move VM bytecode fuzzers, used to discover denial-of-service, integrity, and crash issues across multiple blockchain runtimes.
• Incident Response Security incident response services delivered as part of the Solana Incident Response Network (SIRN) coalition, coordinating real-time responses to threats and sharing threat intelligence across the Solana ecosystem.

Quantifiable outcome

• $36.82B+ in on-chain TVL secured across all audited protocols
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers20 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability2 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core, strategic and flagship.

• SIRN (Solana Incident Response Network)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 April 2026OtterSec is a founding member of SIRN, a coalition of security firms including Asymmetric Research, Neodyme, Squads, and ZeroShadow, launched by the Solana Foundation to coordinate real-time responses to threats and share threat intelligence across the Solana ecosystem. This coalition was established following the $285 million Drift Protocol exploit in April 2026.
• OpenAIstrategicTechnology or Integration · 19 February 2026Collaboration with OpenAI and investment firm Paradigm to develop EVMbench, a benchmark designed to evaluate how well different AI models detect, patch, and exploit security vulnerabilities in smart contracts. The benchmark evaluates 120 smart contracts.
• ParadigmstrategicTechnology or Integration · 19 February 2026Investment firm partnering with OtterSec and OpenAI to develop EVMbench, a benchmark for evaluating AI models' ability to detect smart contract vulnerabilities.
• Solana FoundationflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerTrusted ecosystem partner conducting extensive audits of Solana Core code and Account Compression. The Solana Foundation has publicly endorsed OtterSec as having responsiveness, attentiveness, and talent second-to-none for securing Solana's core code.
• Sui FoundationflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerFormal verification partnership with Sui Foundation, including work on verifying the Aptos core standard library. Sui Foundation cited OtterSec as a reputable, fast, and community-oriented security partner.
• Aptos LabscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for auditing Aptos-based protocols and formal verification work on Aptos standard library.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Spearbit: Network-based smart contract auditing firm leveraging curated independent security researchers. Comparable to OtterSec in talent-centric service delivery and multi-chain coverage.
• Halborn: End-to-end blockchain security firm offering smart contract audits, penetration testing, and advisory. Directly comparable across audit, pentesting, and incident response.
• Zellic: Smart contract and security research firm with notable Solana ecosystem depth. Closely overlaps OtterSec in target ecosystems, customer profile, and research-driven audit approach.
• Runtime Verification: Formal verification and smart contract audit firm with deep academic roots. Directly comparable to OtterSec on formal verification, particularly across Move- and EVM-based ecosystems.
• OpenZeppelin: Leading smart contract security and infrastructure provider, offering audits, security tooling, and Defender monitoring. Comparable to OtterSec across audit, monitoring, and developer-tooling layers.
• Certora: Specializes in formal verification for smart contracts using its Certora Prover. Directly comparable to OtterSec's formal verification service and shares the same high-assurance buyer profile (L1s, DeFi, stablecoin issuers).
• Quantstamp: Long-standing smart contract security and blockchain audit firm covering multiple chains and DeFi protocols. Directly comparable in service breadth and customer base.
• ChainSecurity: Smart contract auditing firm originating from ETH Zurich research, serving DeFi protocols and foundations. Closely comparable to OtterSec's audit and formal verification offerings.
• Trail of Bits: One of the most established blockchain and smart contract security firms, providing audits, formal verification, and applied cryptography research. Directly comparable to OtterSec in service mix and enterprise-grade client base.

Broad incumbents

• Consensys Diligence: Audit and security arm of Consensys, providing smart contract audits across the Ethereum ecosystem. Comparable service offering but embedded within a broader blockchain software conglomerate.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/osec_io
• GitHubgithub.com/otter-sec
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ottersec

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments1 record

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about OtterSec