Sherlock, a leading provider of smart contract auditing and full-stack security, today announced the launch of the $2M Ethereum Fusaka Upgrade Audit Contest in collaboration with the Ethereum Foundation. With sponsorship from Gnosis and Lido, the contest will mobilize the world’s top security researchers to scrutinize the upcoming Fusaka hardfork, ensuring that one of Ethereum’s most important upgrades is battle-tested before deployment.
Fusaka: Ethereum’s Next Leap Forward
The Fusaka upgrade introduces critical changes to Ethereum’s performance and scalability, including PeerDAS for data availability sampling, blob-only hardfork support, a higher gas limit, new opcode functionality, and the addition of the secp256r1 precompile. These improvements strengthen Ethereum’s foundation for the next wave of global adoption. Ensuring the security of these changes is mission-critical, and that is the purpose of this audit contest.
A $2M Global Contest to Secure the Upgrade
Audit contests are time-bound competitions designed to maximize adversarial coverage. Hundreds of security researchers will review the Fusaka codebase under defined rules, submitting vulnerabilities for validation and rewards. Findings are reviewed, triaged, and compiled into an official report, ensuring that issues are not only surfaced but resolved before Fusaka ships. To raise the stakes, valid findings in the first week will receive a 2x reward multiplier, and those in the second week will receive 1.5x. For more information, see the full Fusaka Upgrade Audit Contest details.
Co-Sponsors: Gnosis and Lido
This contest is co-sponsored by Gnosis and Lido, two of the most established teams in the Ethereum ecosystem. Gnosis, contributing $100,000, is known for building core infrastructure including Gnosis Safe, the leading smart contract wallet. Lido, contributing $25,000, is the largest liquid staking protocol and a critical part of Ethereum’s proof-of-stake economy. Their support underscores the broad importance of the Fusaka upgrade and the shared commitment to securing Ethereum’s future.
Sherlock’s Expanding Role in Ethereum Security
Sherlock is committed to the continued security of the Ethereum network, having previously conducted the audit of the Pectra Bytecode upgrade in 2024. Today, Sherlock has expanded beyond audit contests to provide a full security platform, offering collaborative audits, post-launch bug bounty programs, and financial coverage to align incentives between protocols and auditors. The Fusaka contest demonstrates how Sherlock’s global researcher network continues to support Ethereum’s most critical milestones.
The Bigger Picture
Ethereum now functions as the default settlement layer for much of the decentralized economy, and each network upgrade must be carefully secured to support that role. Independent security providers like Sherlock play a key part in this process by mobilizing researchers and aligning incentives around critical milestones. The Fusaka Upgrade Audit Contest reflects that broader effort to keep Ethereum’s infrastructure resilient as adoption grows.
About Sherlock
Sherlock is a full smart contract security platform established in 2021. Through combining collaborative audits, global researcher contests, post-launch bug bounties, and financial coverage, Sherlock delivers end-to-end protection for protocols from development through deployment and beyond. Trusted by many of the industry’s leading projects, Sherlock’s mission is to make onchain systems resilient enough to support the next generation of a global finance.
