How to profit in the DeFi market in 2026 using a Uniswap clone?

The blockchain ecosystems are getting bigger and bigger. They are being used in lots of areas like DeFi, NFTs, cross-chain bridges and big company applications. This means there are ways for bad people to attack them. These bad people are finding weaknesses in the contracts but also in other areas like the consensus layers, the nodes that make up the system the way cryptography is used and how users manage their keys. The old ways of watching for security problems are not good enough for blockchain systems because they are see-through not controlled by one person and cannot be changed once something is done. So it is very important to look for threats, to the blockchain ecosystems. The blockchain ecosystems need this threat hunting to stay safe.

Blockchain threat hunting is a way to figure out what is going on when something bad happens. It is a process that looks for behavior accounts that have been hacked weird transaction flows and new ways that people are trying to exploit Blockchain.

To do this it is helpful to use a framework called STRIDE to identify the threats to Blockchain. This framework looks at things like identity, data integrity, confidentiality, availability and privilege boundaries to see where the problems are with Blockchain. It is a way to understand the threats, to Blockchain and make a plan to stop them.

Applying STRIDE to Blockchain Environments

Blockchain systems have a problem with spoofing. This usually happens when someone gets their hands on a users keys. The thing is, a users identity is connected to these keys. So if someone bad gets a users keys they can do things like sign transactions and take control of the users wallet or contract.

This can happen in a ways. Sometimes it is because of phishing, which’s when someone tries to trick you into giving them your private information. Times it is because of bad updates for your wallet or malware that gets on your computer and steals what you copy. Some people even get extensions for their browser that do bad things.

For example imagine you are using a wallet that looks real but is actually fake. This fake wallet can secretly take your keys and take all your money. This is a thing that happens to people and it is very bad. Blockchain systems and private keys are very important so people need to be careful, with them. When people are trying to find threats they look for things that seem out of the ordinary with money transactions. For example they look for changes in how someone is using their money or when a lot of money is being sent to addresses that do not belong to anyone they know. They also look for wallets that have been compromised and are sending all their money to one address, which is, like a main address that collects all the money from the other wallets. This main address is often used to gather all the stolen money from the transaction behavior of compromised wallets into one place.

Tampering with data or logic is when someone makes changes without permission. Blockchains are supposed to be unchangeable. Some attacks try to manipulate how people agree on things the order of transactions or the rules of a contract. There are lots of examples of these attacks like 51% attacks, front-running and MEV exploitation eclipse attacks and messing with routing. So when someone does a running attack they use a bot to watch for a big trade that has not gone through yet and then the bot puts in its own transaction with a higher fee so it gets done first and makes a profit from the blockchain transaction and this is a problem, with front-running and blockchains. Threat hunters pay attention to things like repeated high-gas transactions that happen before people make profitable trades. They also look at block reorganizations and nodes that have abnormal peer connections. Threat hunters are really interested, in these patterns because they can indicate something suspicious is going on with the transactions and the nodes. Threat hunters monitor these patterns the repeated high-gas transactions, to see if they can find any threats.

So the blockchain thing has a problem called repudiation. This is when someone says that a transaction is not valid. The blockchain is supposed to stop this from happening.. There are some attacks that can cause problems. These attacks are called spending, signature replay and cross-chain replay. They can make it so that a transaction is not final.

For example lets say someone does a double-spend attack. They send a payment. Then they change the blockchain to make it look like the payment was never made. There are people called hunters who look for things like this. They watch for changes, in the blockchain. They look for transactions that have the same signature. They also look for things that happen when chains are connected or mirrored. The blockchain and these chains are what hunters focus on.

Information Disclosure happens when secret information gets out. Blockchain information is open for everyone to see. If it is not done properly secret information can still be leaked. If the random numbers used in contracts are not good enough or if the information, on the blockchain is not encrypted or if someones private keys are stolen then secret information can be found out. For example some DeFi lotteries use numbers that can be guessed so attackers can cheat and win. People who look for threats check the contracts to see if they use numbers that are not good enough or if the same person wins a lot or if someone is doing something suspicious with a new contract. Information Disclosure is a problem because it can reveal information.

Denial of Service attacks target the availability of a system. In blockchain systems these Denial of Service attacks can be really bad. They can involve transactions or people can do things to make it hard for others to use the system. For example someone might keep calling a function that uses a lot of resources, which makes it other people cannot use the system. People who watch for threats look for times when a lot of transactions fail or when the system is using resources than it should. They also look at contracts that have a lot of problems. Denial of Service attacks are a deal because they can make a system unusable. Threat hunters have to be careful and watch for these attacks so they can stop them.

Elevation of Privilege happens when attackers get into the system and do things they should not be able to do. This usually occurs because someone got hold of the admin keys or the system does not have enough controls in place or there are problems with the way the smart contracts work. For example a contract might have a function that lets administrators take out money. It does not have the right limits in place so anyone can take all the money. The people who look for threats the threat hunters, look for cases where someone has taken control of something they should not have or where someone has made a proposal that seems suspicious or where the admin functions are being used in a way that is not expected. Threat hunters check for Elevation of Privilege by looking at things like changes, in who owns something or proposals that do not seem right or calls to the admin functions that’re not normal. They have to watch out for Elevation of Privilege because it can cause problems.

Phases of Blockchain Threat Hunting

Blockchain threat hunting is like a process that we follow to find threats. It has a lot of steps that’re similar to how we normally look for threats but it is used for data that is on the blockchain. We use this process to look at the data, on the blockchain and find any threats. Blockchain threat hunting is really important because it helps us stay safe on the blockchain.

The process starts with making a guess, where people who analyze things come up with an idea based on STRIDE categories, information about threats or recent ways that people have been attacked. For example someone who analyzes things might think that a scam email campaign is taking money from wallets and putting all the money into one group of addresses. This is a guess but it is the beginning of the process. The people who analyze things use STRIDE categories and information about threats to come up with ideas, like this. Then they try to figure out if they are correct.

So what is next is that we need to collect some data. This data collection includes things like the transactions that happen on the chain events from contracts the data that is waiting to be processed in the mempool logs from the nodes and information about the reputation of different addresses. All of this data is really important because it is what we use to do our analysis of the blockchain and the things that are happening on it like the, on-chain transactions and the smart contract events and so on.

When people are trying to figure out what is going on they use graph analytics, transaction tracing and behavioral modeling to find things that do not seem right. The things they do include looking at groups of addresses seeing what happens when contracts are executed and checking how much gas is being used. They do this to find anomalies, in the system like graph analytics and also use transaction tracing to see what is going on. They also use behavioral modeling to understand the anomalies.

The investigation part is where we try to figure out what is going on with the attackers wallets. We look at where the money’s going and try to connect the addresses to people or groups that we already know are causing trouble. To do this we need to put together information that we get from the blockchain and information that we get from places.

We have to look at what’s happening on the blockchain and what is happening outside of it. This helps us get a picture of what the attackers are doing with the money they are stealing. We are talking about the investigation and attribution phase, which’s a big part of what we do. The investigation and attribution phase is really important because it helps us understand what the attackers are doing.

So when something bad happens and the organization has to respond they will tell the people who are affected stop the guys from doing anything else stop using the things that are not safe or share what they know about the threat with everyone else, in the system. They do this in the response and mitigation phase of the organizations. The organizations will alert the users in the response and mitigation phase. The organizations will block addresses in the response and mitigation phase. The organizations will pause contracts in the response and mitigation phase. The organizations will publish threat intelligence to the ecosystem in the response and mitigation phase.

Tools for Blockchain Threat Hunting

Threat hunting these days really needs tools. These tools can look at transaction graphs. See what is going on. They can also pretend to be a contract. Show how it will behave.. They can send alerts right away when something bad happens. Threat hunting uses these tools to stay one step.

EigenPhi is really useful for showing what is happening with on-chain attacks and for looking at MEV analysis. It helps people who are analyzing things to find sandwich attacks and to understand sequences of transactions. EigenPhi is very good, at doing this kind of work especially when it comes to EigenPhi and MEV analysis.

Forta is a tool that helps us keep an eye on things in time. It uses these detection bots to watch for activity with contracts or weird transactions. When something fishy happens Forta sends out an alert so we know about it away. Forta is really good, at finding this kind of stuff because it is always looking at what’s going on with contracts and transactions.

Tenderly is a tool that helps analysts do a few things. It allows them to simulate transactions. They can also inspect the changes that happen to a contract.. They can replay scenarios where someone tried to exploit something. This helps them understand how the attack actually worked. Tenderly is really useful for understanding the logic, behind these attacks.

Chainalysis is really helpful for looking at the history of an address making sure people follow the rules and finding money that has been stolen from wallets and exchanges. Chainalysis does this by tracking the movement of funds, across wallets and exchanges which is a big part of what Chainalysis does.

GraphSense is an useful tool. It is an open-source platform. This means that GraphSense enables people to do address clustering and it also helps with graph-based investigations. These investigations can be done across blockchains using GraphSense. GraphSense makes it possible to look at lots of information, from blockchains all at once.

OpenTracer is really good at looking at transactions. Figuring out what is going on. It can find patterns that always happen and identify when a contract is not behaving like it should. OpenTracer does this by analyzing transactions and finding things that’re always the same which helps it to see when something is wrong, with the contract.

Practical Threat Hunting Scenarios

Lets think about a wallet drainer campaign. So the person looking into this starts with an idea that a lot of wallets are being hacked because of phishing. They do this by looking at the transactions that are going out grouping the addresses that are getting the money and keeping an eye on the wallets that are combining all the money. This helps them figure out what the guys system looks like. They use things, like Chainalysis, GraphSense and Forta alerts to help them understand and see what is going on. Wallet drainer campaigns are pretty bad because they can steal a lot of money from wallets. The analyst has to look at the wallet drainer campaign to see how it works.

When something goes wrong with a contract, people who are looking at it might see that some functions are being used in a weird way or that money is being taken out really fast. If we use Tenderly to pretend that these transactions are happening and then look at what’s going on with OpenTracer we can figure out what the problem is. Then we can follow the money. See where it is going, which is usually to the wallet of the person who is doing the attacking, with the smart contract.

When we talk about a MEV sandwich attack, the people who analyze it have to keep an eye on what’s happening in the mempool. They look for patterns where someone is trying to get of others and they use EigenPhi to see how these attacks are happening one, after the other. This helps them understand the MEV sandwich attack.

Indicators of Compromise in Blockchain Systems

There are some things that can indicate something is not right. For example when money is quickly moved into wallets or when transactions keep failing. We also see things happening with contracts and weird uses of gas. Sometimes the person, in charge of things will suddenly. We will see the same transaction happen again.

These things do not usually happen on their own they happen together. So it is very important to look at how all these thingsre connected, like a big picture to really understand what is going on with these cryptocurrency transactions and wallets and contracts.

Blockchain threat hunting requires a combination of cryptographic awareness, smart contract analysis, graph analytics, and real-time monitoring. By applying the STRIDE framework, security teams can systematically identify threats across identity, integrity, confidentiality, availability, and privilege domains. When this structured approach is combined with specialized tools such as Forta, Tenderly, EigenPhi, GraphSense, and Chainalysis, organizations can move from reactive incident response to proactive threat detection, reducing the impact of exploits in decentralized environments.

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Blockchain Threat Hunting Using the STRIDE Framework was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.