The agreement lets white hat hackers intervene to help Lido should the protocol get exploited.
The collective behind the liquid staking platform voted to adopt the Whitehat Safe Harbor Agreement on Friday, helping secure the protocol’s $26 billion worth of deposits.
The agreement, developed by crypto security nonprofit Security Alliance, gives white hats, hackers who use their skills legally and with permission, to intervene should Lido get exploited. This empowers them to potentially rescue funds that would otherwise be stolen by bad actors.
Without such an agreement in place, white hats risk potential legal action or prosecution from law enforcement, even if their intentions are to help the exploited protocol.
Lido joins 20 other DeFi protocols that have already adopted the agreement, which now collectively secures over $45 billion.
Among them are some of the biggest names in DeFi, including top DeFi lender Aave, yield derivatives protocol Pendle, and Uniswap, the biggest decentralised exchange.
The Whitehat Safe Harbor Agreement, which has been ongoing for several years, has received increased attention in recent months amid a surge in crypto crime.
The amount of crypto stolen by North Korean hackers this year increased by 51%, according to Chainalysis, a blockchain security firm.
Over $2.5 billion has been stolen from crypto services so far in 2025, according to DefiLlama data.
DeFi protocols like Lido — code on blockchains like Ethereum that facilitate permissionless trading, lending, and other services — remain a top target for malicious hackers.
Security Alliance began developing a standardised Safe Harbor Agreement following the 2022 Nomad hack.
“Over $190 million was drained over the course of hours while white hats stood by, willing to help, but unable to act without legal protection,” Security Alliance said on its website. “With Safe Harbor, our goal is to make sure that never happens again and to empower whitehats to rescue funds.”
The framework has received direct input and legal review from experts at a16z Crypto, Cooley, Debevoise & Plimpton, Filecoin Foundation, Paradigm, and several other firms.
