Crypto’s ‘decentralised finance’ sector at risk of attack, warns Chainalysis

The nearly $150bn “decentralised finance” sector of cryptocurrency markets faces serious security vulnerabilities that put it at risk of hacking and theft, according to the head of the world’s biggest crypto tracing company. 

Jonathan Levin, chief executive of Chainalysis, told the Financial Times that the rapid growth of so-called DeFi platforms, which operate on blockchains and without intermediaries such as banks, had left their users’ assets at risk of attack.

“When you’re building a protocol in your mum’s basement, you don’t have a [chief security officer] from GCHQ [the UK intelligence and security organisation], for example,” he said.