In an exclusive interview with CCN, Alex Katz, CEO and founder of Kerberus, shared insights into the evolving security threats facing crypto users—and why most losses still come down to human behavior.
Kerberus, a Web3 security firm best known for its Sentinel3 browser extension, has protected over 250,000 users without a single reported loss since its launch nearly three years ago.
The Growing Threat Landscape in Web3
Phishing remains the dominant threat in crypto.
Katz pointed to industry data showing that more than $594 million was lost across blockchains in the first half of 2025 alone.
Solana users accounted for roughly $90 million—about 15% of those losses.
Katz emphasized that this reflects adoption and growth, rather than weaknesses in Solana’s design.
“Solana is growing a lot... Attackers do not discriminate based on asset or blockchain. They want your long-earned crypto.”
While attack methods evolve, ranging from NFT approval exploits to airdrop scams, the objective stays the same: gaining control of wallets.
Increasingly, Katz said, the real vulnerability is psychological.
“It’s purely psychological. The reason why people get drained is that they’re in a rush or distracted... You’re greedy. In the heat of the moment, you just want to go as fast as possible.”
Solana-Specific Risks—and Kerberus’ Approach
Solana introduces unique risks that differ from EVM-based chains. One example is token account ownership.
“What they can do in Solana is transfer the ownership of the token account... Instead of you seeing a transfer out of the token, the ownership is being transferred,” Katz explained.
Kerberus addresses these threats through a closed-source detection engine that evaluates transactions before they’re signed, allowing it to block malicious activity regardless of network speed.
After expanding into Solana in February 2025 and acquiring Pocket Universe in August, Kerberus now offers coverage across both EVM chains and Solana through Sentinel3 and its integrated Pocket Universe tooling.
Beyond Phishing: The Next Security Frontier
Katz warned that malware represents the next major threat.
Once a device is compromised, attackers can gain full control over wallets—something traditional antivirus tools are not designed to stop.
To address this, Kerberus is developing a crypto-specific antivirus focused on protecting private keys and seed phrases.
“Whenever some file is trying to access your private key or seed phrases, it would be stopped... This is specifically to protect you from crypto attacks and nothing else.”
Toward a “Secure by Default” Crypto Experience
For Katz, long-term adoption depends on making security invisible and automatic.
“Imagine that your mom or your grandma wants to come into crypto. It’s literally impossible for them to do right now... All the security rails and insurance have to be baked in.”
He emphasized that browser-level protections should work alongside hardware wallets, not replace them.
“You make the profits, we keep them yours.”
Kerberus positions itself as a proactive defense layer between users’ wallets and the web. As Katz explained:
“Kerberus is the only security solution for users that is designed to detect phishing sites in real time... If they install our browser extension, which is in the middle between their wallet and whatever the website wants to do, they just don’t get drained.”
Rather than reacting after funds are gone, Sentinel3 intercepts transactions before they’re signed, analyzing them in real time and blocking malicious requests with a clear warning.
Kerberus also offers up to $30,000 in coverage if its protection fails.
As crypto continues to scale, Kerberus is betting that reducing human error—not just patching technical flaws—will define the next phase of security.
