How much does a DEX audit actually catch before hackers do?
Been reading up on DEX security this week and it's honestly a bit unsettling how many hacks trace back to stuff that should've been caught pre-launch. Flash loan manipulation, oracle price feeds getting spoofed, reentrancy bugs that let someone drain a pool before balances even update.
What surprised me most is how much goes beyond just the swap contract. Auditors dig into the factory contract, the router, LP token logic, even governance and staking layers. A single misconfigured permission on a treasury contract can be just as costly as a broken AMM formula.
Anyone here launched a DEX or gone through a full smart contract audit? Curious what actually turned up in your reports, was it mostly access control issues, or more business logic stuff around fee distribution and rewards?
If you're digging deeper into what a proper DEX smart contract audit actually covers stage by stage, found a solid writeup here worth a look: https://cryptiecraft.com/dex-smart-contract-audit/
Would love to hear real experiences, not just theory.
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The part I still don't really understand is what an audit doesn't catch.
Like, can a DEX pass a smart contract audit and still get hacked because the problem is somewhere outside the audited code? Or is a full audit supposed to cover most of that too?
I'm trying to understand where the audit actually stops.
Great question. In practice, audits often uncover a mix of access-control and business-logic issues. The biggest takeaway is that an audit reduces risk, but ongoing monitoring and testing are still essential after launch.