Halborn
Halborn audits smart contracts and blockchain systems for exchanges, banks, and crypto foundations.
On the record
Checkpoint: Whether Halborn raises a new funding round after 4 years of silence since its 2022 Series A
The call
Halborn has real bank-grade clients and trust, but its core audit business faces cheaper AI competition while no new funding round has landed in four years.
Halborn checks smart contracts for errors and security holes for banks and crypto companies. The easy part to copy: routine audits can now be done faster and cheaper by AI tools like QuillAudits, and big consulting firms like Accenture are moving into this space with relationships banks already trust. The hard part to stay relevant: Halborn's newer product Seraph (a firewall for AI agents) needs to prove it can make real money at scale; if it does, the company survives the squeeze; if it does not, flat hiring and no new funding since 2022 suggest the core business is quietly shrinking.
Why
01
AI pressure: QuillAudits AI agent network and similar automated audit tools. AI tools now scan contracts for known bug patterns cheaply, squeezing the routine-audit fees Halborn depends on. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.
02
Bigger players: Accenture, Capgemini, IBM Consulting. Big consulting firms already hold the bank and regulator relationships Halborn relies on, and are adding Web3 security practices. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. Existing compliance-grade relationships with UBS, DBS, SBI, and Bank Frick that took years to build and are hard to copy quickly.
What would change this call
Halborn announces a new funding round or valuation update within 12 months. Would show whether growth story continues, stalls, or reverses into a down-round.
Seraph discloses recurring revenue or named enterprise AI-agent-security contracts. Would confirm product diversification beyond commodity smart-contract audits.
A protocol previously audited by Halborn suffers a major hack. Would signal erosion of institutional trust and audit-quality reputation.
Seraph discloses recurring revenue or named enterprise AI-agent-security contracts. Would confirm product diversification beyond commodity smart-contract audits.
A protocol previously audited by Halborn suffers a major hack. Would signal erosion of institutional trust and audit-quality reputation.
Key numbers
- $90M Series A, ~$485M post-money valuation
- Estimated annual revenue ~$17.7M to $21M
- Headcount roughly 83-100, down from 136 in 2022
Named risks
- Headcount appears plateaued or contracted since 2022 Series A peak despite rising audit volume.
- No new funding round reported in roughly 4 years since 2022, raising growth-story doubts.
- AI-driven commoditization of routine smart contract audits pressuring price and margins.
- Revenue figures remain unverified third-party estimates with no company disclosure.
- A major hack of a Halborn-audited protocol would carry outsized reputational damage.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Trail of Bits | losing to | Positioned as second-pass boutique behind Trail of Bits per industry commentary, 2026-05-22 |
| OpenZeppelin | losing to | Named as top-tier reviewer Halborn trails in institutional smart contract audits, 2026-05-22 |
| QuillAudits | gaining on | Markets an AI agent audit network for commoditized smart contract audits, 2024-08-06 |
| Big Four consulting (Accenture, Capgemini, IBM Consulting) | contesting | Entering Web3 security services with existing regulated-finance trust relationships |
| PeckShield | contesting | Listed as direct tracked competitor by PitchBook among 23 rivals |
Questions people ask
- Is Halborn profitable in 2026?
- Halborn says it was bootstrapped and profitable from its 2019 founding until its first external raise in 2022. No profitability figures have been disclosed since; third-party estimators (ZoomInfo, July 2026) peg annual revenue at roughly $21M, but this is an outside estimate, not a company disclosure.
- Could AI replace Halborn's smart contract audits?
- Routine, high-volume smart contract audits are increasingly automatable; rival QuillAudits already markets an AI agent audit network (2024). Halborn's edge is its accountable, insurable sign-off for regulated clients like UBS and Bank Frick, which pure AI tools can't yet replicate, per its own 2025-03-10 strategy post.
- Who owns Halborn?
- Halborn is privately held and venture-backed, not publicly traded. Its largest known raise is a $90M Series A closed 2022-07-19, led by Summit Partners with Castle Island Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Brevan Howard and others participating, valuing it near $484.79M post-money.
- Who is Halborn's biggest competitor?
- Industry commentary (TechBullion, 2026-05-22) places Halborn among 'boutique' second-pass auditors behind top-tier firms Trail of Bits and OpenZeppelin. PitchBook also lists PeckShield as a direct tracked competitor, while Big Four firms like Accenture and IBM Consulting are entering Web3 security.
- Has Halborn raised new funding since its Series A?
- No new priced funding round has been publicly reported since Halborn's $90M Series A closed on 2022-07-19. As of mid-2026, over four years have passed with no valuation update, despite continued VC interest in crypto-security infrastructure.
- What is Seraph and why does Halborn make it?
- Seraph is Halborn's pre-execution transaction firewall, launched around 2024-2025 and explicitly positioned as a preventive answer to the roughly $1.4B Bybit hack (Feb/March 2025). By 2026 it is being extended to screen autonomous AI agent transactions for agentic commerce.
Timeline
- 2026-04-23Halborn audit of Soqucoin uncovers heap-buffer-overflow in NIST PQC reference implementation
- 2026-04-15Strategic security partnership announced with Hashgraph to secure Hedera ecosystem
- 2025-03-10CEO Rob Behnke publicly outlines AI plus blockchain convergence strategy
- 2025-03Seraph transaction firewall positioned as fix for the roughly $1.4B Bybit hack
- 2023-04-04Halborn announces data partnership with Chainalysis for forensics
- 2022-07-19Halborn closes $90M Series A led by Summit Partners
- 2019Halborn founded by Steven Walbroehl and Rob Behnke
Revision history
21 July 2026
First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- Halborn IPO: Investment Opportunities & Pre-IPO Valuations (2023-11-14)
- Blockchain Security Startup Raises $90 Million Despite Crypto Winter (2022-07-19)
- Web3 Security Firm Halborn Raises $90M Series A (2022-08-23)
- Halborn - Overview, News & Similar companies (2026-07-06)
- Revenue, Competitors, Alternatives
- Hashgraph and Halborn Partner to Elevate Security Across the Hedera Ecosystem (2026-04-15)
- Digital Asset and Blockchain Security Solutions (2026-07-13)
- Halborn Raises $90M Series A (2024-04-17)
- Halborn Careers, Perks + Culture
- How the Bybit Hack Happened and How to Prevent the Next One with Seraph (2025-03)
- Agentic Commerce Protection
- Halborn Secures Soqucoin (2026-04-23)