Neodyme

TLDR

Neodyme is a security firm based in Germany that provides smart contract audits, core blockchain reviews, penetration testing, and security training. Founded in 2021 as Neodyme AG, the firm has been auditing Solana since 2020 and has established itself as one of the ecosystem's most technically credible security reviewers. The team has responsibly disclosed over 100 bugs in core blockchain code, collectively protecting more than $10 billion in TVL from loss-of-funds vulnerabilities.

Core Services

Neodyme operates across three main blockchain security verticals.

Smart contract audits cover DeFi protocols, NFT platforms, liquid staking solutions, and cross-chain bridge contracts across Solana, Ethereum, and Move-based chains. Audits follow a structured process that produces written reports with severity-graded findings and remediation guidance.

Core blockchain audits are the firm's most differentiated offering. Neodyme began reviewing Solana's validator codebase and cryptographic components in 2020, before the mainnet was widely live. Over roughly eighteen months of deep core-protocol work, the team reported more than 80 bugs to Solana's bug bounty program — all responsibly disclosed and subsequently patched. One of the most significant early findings was a critical vulnerability in Solana's Token Lending program within the Solana Program Library (SPL), identified in June 2021, which would have allowed fund theft if exploited. The firm also reported a flaw in durable nonces that was patched before any exploit occurred.

Protocol design reviews evaluate whitepapers, yellowpapers, and system specifications before code is written. These are often commissioned by investors conducting technical due diligence on projects pre-launch.

Beyond blockchain, Neodyme also runs IT security services including penetration testing and multi-day security training courses for enterprise and research clients. The firm participates in competitive security events: the team has competed at Pwn2Own Ireland (2024) and Pwn2Own Toronto (2022), successfully exploiting vulnerabilities in printers, routers, and NAS devices.

Notable Audit Clients

Neodyme has audited some of the most prominent protocols in the Solana ecosystem, including Marinade Finance, Lido on Solana (multiple rounds), Orca, Drift Protocol, Squads Protocol, deBridge on Solana, and Neon EVM. Solana Labs itself is listed as a client, reflecting the firm's work on validator and core protocol code. Jump Crypto has also engaged Neodyme for security reviews.

Anatoly Yakovenko, CEO of Solana Labs, has publicly described Neodyme as demonstrating "attention to every aspect of smart contract security" with "experience with the core protocol going back to its early days," and has credited the firm with keeping the broader Solana ecosystem safer.

Open Source Security Infrastructure

Neodyme maintains a public GitHub organization (neodyme-labs) with 36 repositories, several of which have become standard tooling in the Solana security ecosystem.

• solana-security-txt (400+ stars): Implements a security.txt convention for Solana programs, giving white-hat researchers a standardized channel for responsible disclosure.
• solana-poc-framework (240+ stars): A Rust-based framework for writing proof-of-concept exploits against Solana smart contracts in a local test environment, widely used by auditors and researchers.
• solana-ctf (200+ stars): A collection of capture-the-flag challenges focused on Solana program security, used for training and recruitment.
• SolDragon (70+ stars): A Solana disassembler plugin for the Ghidra reverse-engineering platform.
• Riverguard: A mutation-based fuzzing tool that automatically generates attack scenarios against deployed Solana programs and is offered free to any Solana protocol. The tool was described in a May 2025 blog post and represents the firm's effort to automate parts of the vulnerability discovery process.

Research Output

Neodyme publishes a technical blog covering both blockchain and general security research. Blockchain-focused posts include an analysis of common Solana smart contract pitfalls (covering account ownership bugs, signer verification issues, and arithmetic errors), a deep dive into Solana consensus mechanics and fork resolution, and a series exploring unsafe program vault patterns discovered in core Solana code.

The blog also covers research outside blockchain: the team has published on Windows kernel privilege escalation, BitLocker bypass techniques, Widevine DRM internals, post-quantum FIDO tokens, and hardware firmware attacks — reflecting a generalist security research culture that informs their blockchain work.

Ecosystem Fit

Neodyme occupies a foundational layer in Solana's security infrastructure. Most large Solana protocols are expected to complete an independent audit before launch, and Neodyme is one of a small set of firms that can review both application-layer smart contracts and the underlying validator and runtime code. Their early work on SPL vulnerabilities and the bug bounty program contributed to the measurable decline in Solana on-chain exploits — from a peak of roughly $550M lost in 2022 to $8M in 2025 according to multi-auditor empirical research published in 2025. The firm's open source tools and public CTF challenges also serve an educational function, helping raise the baseline security literacy of the Solana developer community.