Solana Foundation to strengthen DeFi security as attacks continue

The Solana Foundation on Monday announced a new security auditing framework for Solana-based protocols, alongside an incident-response network, warning that “adversaries are rapidly innovating.”

Solana Trust framework for DeFi security

The Solana Foundation, a Swiss organization that supports the adoption and security of Solana, and Web3 security firm Asymmetric Research unveiled the Solana Trust, Resilience and Infrastructure for DeFi Enterprises (STRIDE). The initiative is described as a “structured program for evaluating, monitoring and escalating security across Solana projects.”

STRIDE evaluates protocol security across eight pillars: program security; governance and access control; oracle and dependency risk; infrastructure security; supply chain security; operational security; monitoring and incident response; and log management and forensics.

Protocols are independently assessed against these requirements, with findings published publicly, Asymmetric Research said. The firm added that the approach provides “users, investors, and the broader ecosystem real transparency into the security posture of the protocols they interact with.”

Incident-response network for real-time coordination

In a separate announcement, the Solana Foundation introduced the Solana Incident Response Network (SIRN), described as a network of security firms focused on real-time incident response across the Solana ecosystem.

The foundation said members will share threat intelligence, coordinate responses to active incidents, and contribute to the ongoing evolution of the STRIDE framework.

Context: recent DeFi exploits and rising threat activity

The announcement comes a week after one of the largest DeFi exploits this year. Drift Protocol reportedly lost around $280 million following a social engineering attack attributed to North Korean-linked threat actors.

The foundation did not mention artificial-intelligence agents directly. However, the timing aligns with reports that AI agents are increasingly being used to amplify crypto attacks. In January, $40 million was drained from the Solana DeFi platform Step Finance, with KuCoin reporting that AI agents amplified the damage by executing large transfers autonomously.

Q1 2026 DeFi theft figures

According to data from DefiLlama, malicious actors stole over $168 million in cryptocurrency from 34 DeFi protocols in the first quarter of 2026.

The figure was lower than the same period last year, when $1.58 billion was pilfered in Q1 2025. DefiLlama data cited the largest exploit for the period as the private key compromise of Step Finance.