CertiK
The largest auditor of crypto smart contracts, valued at $2B since 2022. It talks about an IPO, but its record includes the Kraken bug dispute and a Huione audit apology.
The Block, Jan 23, 2026- Valuation
- $2B (2022) Set by the $88M Series B3 in Apr 2022. No priced round has been announced since, and CertiK still cites more than $2B.
- Raised
- About $290M Five rounds from Jul 2021 to Apr 2022 add up to $289M (our sum). The CEO said more than $240M in Feb 2026. A further Binance investment was reported in 2026.
- Watch
- Trust record The 2024 Kraken bug dispute and a 2025 apology for auditing a Huione-linked stablecoin. CertiK says it has since tightened its KYC checks.
- AI
- AI Auditor Opened to the public in Apr 2026 after six months of internal use, alongside open-source integrations for AI coding agents.
- Liquidity
- None reported No employee tender offer or staff share sale found in round announcements or press coverage.
- Hiring
- 28 → 30 remote listings since Oct 10.
Paid code audits for crypto projects, plus security and compliance work for institutions.
The CEO says protocol audits remain the main source of revenue. CertiK also sells penetration testing, formal verification, proof of reserves audits, KYC badges for project teams, validator services and compliance help (Dubai VARA, EU MiCA and DORA). Skynet, its free public rating site, feeds sales. No revenue split published.
certik.com/llms.txt; CoinDesk, Feb 11, 2026- 1The biggest client list in crypto auditingCertiK says it has served 5,500+ clients, assessed $600B+ of digital assets and logged 119,000+ vulnerability findings. In 2022 it said it served 60% of listed projects that use outside auditors.certik.com/llms.txt; SiliconANGLE, Apr 2022
- 2Formal verification rootsFounded by Columbia professor Ronghui Gu and Yale professor Zhong Shao from their formal verification research. Its GitHub shows 2026 work for Ethereum Foundation zkVM grants and on Verus (verified Rust).CertiK GitHub; certik.com about page
- 3Skynet puts CertiK scores in front of usersCertiK says Skynet monitors 17,000+ projects and has 1.8M+ monthly users.certik.com/llms.txt
- Chainalysis$8.60Bprivate, May 12
- CertiK$2.00BSeries B3, Apr 7
- TRM Labs$2.00Bprivate, Sep 9
- Elliptic$670Mprivate, May 13
Private values are the last reported round; they can be stale. Listed values are market value. Bars start at zero.
Every round, and what its terms give away.
CertiK is private, so there is no share price. What its investors paid, and on what terms, is the closest thing to one.
- $2.00B
- latest valuation, Series B3 Apr 7
- $289M
- raised in all
No revenue or profit figure published. In 2022 CertiK said it was profitable and revenue grew 1,200% in 2021, without amounts. Form D: revenue range declined to disclose.
SiliconANGLE, Apr 7, 2022; total raised is our sum of 2021 to 2022 roundsPost-money valuations as reported. The line starts at zero. Rounds without a reported valuation are left off.
- Jan 23Strategic investmentLed by BinanceThe CEO said Binance, its first and largest backer, recently made an eight-figure investment. Amount, terms and price not disclosed; date is when reported.The Block, Jan 23, 2026
- Apr 24Series B3 add-on$60MLed by SoftBank Vision Fund 2Tiger Global joined. Came days after the B3; date is when EdgeIR reported it.EdgeIR, Apr 24, 2022
- Apr 7Series B3$88M at $2.00BLed by Insight Partners. About 4% of the company, if all new sharesCo-led with Tiger Global and Advent International; Goldman Sachs joined. Form D shows $87,999,975 of equity sold to 15 investors, first sale Mar 23, 2022.SEC Form D, Mar 31, 2022; SiliconANGLE, Apr 7, 2022
- Dec 1Series B2$80M at $1.00BLed by Sequoia Capital China. About 8% of the company, if all new sharesValuation reported as nearly $1B. Tiger Global, Coatue and GL Ventures (Hillhouse) joined.CoinDesk, Dec 1, 2021
- Aug 17Series B extension$24MLed by Tiger Global and GL VenturesExisting backers included Binance, IDG Capital, Lightspeed and Yale University.CoinDesk, Aug 17, 2021
- Jul 14Series B$37MLed by Coatue and Shunwei CapitalCoinbase Ventures joined. Binance Labs led an earlier, undisclosed round.CoinDesk, Aug 17, 2021
- Down round or flat round?The 2022 B3 doubled the price to $2B. Since then CertiK has cited the same $2B; the 2026 Binance money had no disclosed price. Flat on paper for 4.5 years.The Block, Jan 23, 2026Flag
- How much of the company the last priced round soldAbout 4.4% ($88M of $2B, our arithmetic, assuming post-money). The $60M add-on had no stated price.SiliconANGLE, Apr 7, 2022Clear
- Time since the last raiseLast priced round Apr 2022, over 4.5 years ago. The only later money is an unpriced Binance check reported in Jan 2026.The Block, Jan 23, 2026Flag
- Structured or unusual termsForm D lists plain equity for the B3. No liquidation preference, ratchet or warrant terms reported. Issuer is CertiK Global Ltd., a Cayman Islands company.SEC Form D, Mar 31, 2022Open
- New outside lead or insiders only?The 2022 B3 was led by new names (Insight, Advent, Goldman). The 2026 money came from Binance, an existing backer.SiliconANGLE, Apr 2022; The Block, Jan 2026Clear
- Employee liquidityNo tender offer or staff secondary sale found. The CEO said in Feb 2026 that investors have made several inquiries, with no deal described.CoinDesk via Yahoo Finance, Feb 11, 2026Open
- Layoffs in the last 12 monthsNone found since Nov 2025. The last reported cut was Oct 2023: fewer than 15% of staff, at least 30 jobs.CoinDesk, Oct 13, 2023; news search Nov 3, 2026Clear
Clear: checked, nothing found. Flag: found, with the source. Open: could not be checked.
No filing reported; CEO said in Feb 2026 there is no concrete IPO plan
What the record says, and what we think it means.
The fact is the source's. The read, in italics, is ours.
- 01Watch
Kraken called CertiK's bug test extortion.
Cointelegraph, Jun 20, 2024In Jun 2024 Kraken said a researcher used a deposit bug to withdraw about $3M and held it for a bounty. CertiK said it was the researcher, ran a white hat test and never asked for a bounty. Kraken's security chief confirmed on Jun 20 that funds came back minus fees.
The money was returned, but the size of the test and the routing of some funds through Tornado Cash drew wide criticism. The episode still follows the brand.
- 02Watch
CertiK apologised for auditing a Huione stablecoin.
DL News, Feb 11, 2025CertiK audited the stablecoin of Huione Guarantee, a Cambodian marketplace that Elliptic and a MetaMask researcher linked to scam compounds. CertiK said the work came through a vetted third party, apologised in Feb 2025 and is donating the fee.
It shows the risk in selling audits to anyone who pays. CertiK says it now runs stricter KYC and watches how its reports are used.
- 03Neutral
IPO talk, then a walk-back.
CoinDesk via Yahoo Finance, Feb 11, 2026; The Block, Jan 23, 2026At Davos in Jan 2026 the CEO said being the first public web3 security firm is a goal. Three weeks later he told CoinDesk the coverage overstated it and there is no concrete plan or timeline.
Treat a listing as an ambition, not an event. No filing or banker hire has been reported.
- 04Watch
The Block says Binance is its biggest backer.
The Block, Jan 23, 2026; CertiK blog, Jan 6, 2026The Block reports Binance was CertiK's first backer and is its largest, and the CEO said Binance recently added an eight-figure investment. In Jan 2026 CertiK also partnered with YZi Labs, formerly Binance Labs, on a $1M audit grant.
Close ties to one exchange can raise independence questions for an auditor that rates exchanges, though no conflict has been alleged in our sources.
- 05Neutral
One layoff, in the 2023 crypto slump.
CoinDesk, Oct 13, 2023In Oct 2023 CertiK cut fewer than 15% of staff, at least 30 jobs, citing market dynamics, weeks after Chainalysis and Ledger made cuts.
Audit demand follows the crypto cycle. A deep downturn is the main hiring risk.
- 06Neutral
New York head office, team spread across regions.
CertiK Lever board, Nov 3, 2026; certik.com about page; SEC Form DCertiK lists teams in the US, Asia-Pacific, Brazil, South Korea, Turkey, the UAE and Europe. Of 33 open Lever roles on Nov 3, 2026, about 20 were US or remote US; others sat in Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Dubai, Brazil and Europe. The holding company is in the Cayman Islands.
Many US roles are remote engineering. Business development and compliance jobs lean toward Asia and the Gulf.
- 07Neutral
The Background Investigator role vets crypto founders.
CertiK Lever posting, Nov 3, 2026The Lever posting describes a KYC investigator who interviews web3 project teams and runs open-source checks before CertiK issues its KYC badge.
After Huione, team vetting is where CertiK's reputation is won or lost, so this desk matters more than its title suggests.
- 08Good
A new bug bounty platform.
CertiK blog, Jul 1, 2026CertiK Hunt launched Jul 1, 2026 as an invite-only platform for bug bounties, audit contests and AI security challenges, with vetted researchers.
It puts CertiK against Immunefi-style bounty sites and adds a second way to earn from each client.
Engineering is paid 13% under market.
We save every company's roles, pay by team and level, AI share and churn every day, so each month this page can say more. Sparklines use their own scale.
Can AI agents do business with CertiK?
We checked the agent payment programs, developer docs and site rules an AI assistant would meet.
Open to AI readers, early on agent tools. The site welcomes AI crawlers and has an llms.txt. Agent integrations were announced, but we found no MCP server or public repo.
Still Remote read- YesLets AI crawlers read its siterobots.txt allows OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended and CCBot, blocking only /api/.checked Nov 3, 2026
- Mixedllms.txt on the main site and product sitescertik.com/llms.txt lists services, stats and reports. skynet.certik.com/llms.txt returned a Cloudflare block to our check.checked Nov 3, 2026
- AnnouncedTools for AI coding agentsCertiK announced open-source integrations that bring its security data into AI coding agents in Apr 2026. Its blog names no tools or repository, and CertiKProject on GitHub shows no such repo.CertiK blog, Apr 7, 2026; GitHub, Nov 3, 2026
- Not foundAn MCP serverNo MCP server found on certik.com, in its llms.txt or on its GitHub. A /.well-known/mcp.json check was blocked.checked Nov 3, 2026
- YesIts own AI productAI Auditor runs several specialized models in parallel and can run in CI/CD pipelines. CertiK claims an 88.6% hit rate on 35 real 2026 incidents (its own test). The launch post also points to a waitlist.CertiK blog, Apr 7, 2026
Where CertiK puts AI to work.
- 1Its auditors used the AI firstAI Auditor began as an internal tool for CertiK's own auditors and was tested for more than six months before public release. CertiK says it is not meant to replace human auditors.CertiK blog, Apr 7, 2026
- 2Hiring for an AI audit agentAn open AI Track role builds LLM-based agents that analyze smart contracts and find vulnerabilities, and asks for experience with agentic coding tools such as Cursor.CertiK Lever posting, Nov 3, 2026
More listings than on Sep 19, led by engineering.
What has to be true for $2 billion to hold?
CertiK does not publish revenue, so the starting number is your assumption, not ours. A way to think, not a forecast, and not investment advice.
At 25x, CertiK needs $80 million of revenue to be worth $2 billion. Your world gets there with $157 million, so the next round likely prices above the last.
$100,000 of equity valued at the $2.00B Series B3 price would be worth about $196,000 on paper in this world, before dilution from new rounds, taxes and vesting. Private shares only turn into cash at a sale, an IPO or a tender offer.
A way to think, not a forecast, and not investment advice.
SiliconANGLE, Apr 2022; CoinDesk, Feb 2026The signals, and which way they push.
- TailwindRules are making audits recurring.
MiCA and DORA in the EU, VARA in Dubai and Brazil's VASP rules (deadline Oct 30, 2026) push firms toward repeat, jurisdiction-specific security reviews.
- HeadwindAI may cheapen the core audit.
CertiK's own AI Auditor targets self-review and pre-audit triage, work that once needed paid manual audits. Rivals and open-source tools chase the same task.
- HeadwindReputation is the product.
Kraken in 2024 and Huione in 2025 both drew public criticism; CertiK's CEO spent early 2026 interviews on rebuilding trust.
- HeadwindTied to the crypto cycle.
Revenue grew 12-fold in the 2021 boom, then CertiK cut staff in the 2023 slump. Protocol audits are still the main revenue line.
Where CertiK ends up, if we had to bet.
Our calls, not facts. Each one is tied to something that already happened, so you can judge the reasoning.
- 1
CertiK lists on a US exchange by 2031.
Long shot 16%IPOThe CEO calls it a goal but says there is no concrete plan, and no revenue has been disclosed. A Cayman holding company and a $2B mark from 2022 add work before any listing.
CoinDesk via Yahoo Finance, Feb 11, 2026 - 2
A larger security or crypto firm buys CertiK before 2032.
Long shot 16%M&ABinance is already its largest backer and growth investors from 2022 may want an exit. But at a $2B mark with reputational baggage, few buyers are obvious.
The Block, Jan 23, 2026 - 3
Institutional compliance and testing work rivals protocol audits as a revenue source by 2031.
Coin flip 50%ProductsCertiK is hiring AML directors and selling MiCA, DORA and VARA services. Protocol audits remain the main line today, per the CEO.
certik.com/llms.txt; Lever, Nov 2026 - 4
Most CertiK audits start with an AI pass, and audit prices fall.
Likely 72%AIAI Auditor already handles pre-audit triage internally. Cheaper automated checks tend to push down what clients pay for the manual layer.
CertiK blog, Apr 7, 2026 - 5
CertiK stays the audit firm with the most clients, but not the most trusted name.
Coin flip 50%CompetitionIts client count leads the field. Its public disputes give rivals an opening with the high-value clients that care most about reputation.
certik.com/llms.txt; DL News, Feb 2025
Read by the Still Remote research agent on November 4, 2026 from the sources linked on this page. Facts and scenarios only, not investment advice.