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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Some bug bounty programs are putting more reward emphasis on severe, demonstrably exploitable vulnerabilities instead of paying for a high volume of lower-impact reports. Coinbase made that change in its Web2 HackerOne program in July 2026; it is a concrete example, not evidence that every program is following the same policy.
What changed in Coinbase’s bug bounty program?
On July 29, 2026, Coinbase announced that its Web2 HackerOne program would stop rewarding low- and medium-severity issues. High, Critical, and Extreme findings remained eligible under the revised terms. The change did not apply to Coinbase’s Web3 Cantina program, which the company said was unchanged. Coinbase’s announcement described the decision as specific to the way its security operation handles reports.
Coinbase cited the ability of internal security tools to catch lower-severity issues at scale, alongside noise from duplicates, non-exploitable submissions, and invalid reports. The company said: “AI has changed who — or what — finds a ‘commodity’ vulnerability, and it has changed how fast and how cheaply that can happen.” It also said, “Our own internal security tooling has matured and can catch this class of issue at scale, continuously.” Those are Coinbase’s stated reasons; they do not establish that AI alone is driving policy changes across the industry.
Coinbase’s first-half 2026 report mix
For reports closed in its HackerOne program during the first half of 2026, Coinbase reported that 44% were duplicates, 37% were informative or not exploitable, 15% were invalid, and 4% were valid bugs that were paid. These percentages describe Coinbase’s report closures, not the bug bounty industry as a whole.
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Coinbase’s announced maximum rewards
Under the revised terms for the specified Web2 HackerOne program, Coinbase listed maximum rewards of up to $6,000 for High findings, up to $15,000 for Critical findings, and up to $1,000,000 for Extreme findings. These are program-specific ceilings, not typical payouts or market-wide rates.
Why are programs emphasizing impact?
A bounty program can receive many submissions without receiving many valid, exploitable findings. Duplicate reports, invalid claims, or issues with no demonstrated security impact consume triage time without necessarily improving security. A program that has stronger internal detection for routine weaknesses may choose to direct its external rewards toward vulnerabilities that are harder to find or have a more serious consequence.
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That approach depends on the program’s goals and capacity. Rewarding only a narrower set of severities may concentrate attention on critical assets, but it can also make lower-severity issues less attractive to researchers. Clear policies matter: researchers need to understand what impact qualifies, what assets are eligible, and how the program handles reports that do not meet its reward criteria.
What platform-reported trends add context
Separate from Coinbase’s policy change, platform-published data points to rising rewards or report activity in particular areas. The figures below describe Bugcrowd’s and HackerOne’s own reporting; they should not be treated as directly comparable or as proof that all programs share one strategy.
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Bugcrowd’s 2025 payout and vulnerability figures
In its 2025 CISO report announcement, Bugcrowd reported increases in average payouts for several vulnerability areas: 32% for critical vulnerabilities overall, 36% for critical broken-access-control vulnerabilities, 42% for critical sensitive-data-exposure vulnerabilities, and 10% for API vulnerabilities. It also reported that network vulnerability figures doubled and hardware vulnerability figures rose 88%. These are platform-reported figures from Bugcrowd’s 2025 report, not universal bounty rates. Bugcrowd’s report resources.
Trey Ford, Bugcrowd’s Chief Strategy and Trust Officer, said in the September 23, 2025 announcement: “By using adversarial testing and objective measurement, security leaders can shift from reactive firefighting to building true resilience.”
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HackerOne’s 2025 report figures
HackerOne’s 2025 report page reported 210% growth in valid AI vulnerability reports and a 540% increase in prompt-injection reports. It also said 72% of its customers reported increased concern over AI risks. The report page said its figures drew on more than 580,000 validated vulnerabilities, $81 million in 2025 payouts, and 1,950 enterprise programs. These are HackerOne-published figures and do not show that AI vulnerabilities are eligible or rewarded equally in every program. HackerOne’s 2025 report.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How should researchers evaluate a bounty program?
A severity label alone does not guarantee that a report will qualify for a reward. Each program sets its own rules, and some explain alternative impact criteria or how they assess exploit chains. HackerOne’s maturity guidance treats its recommendations as adaptable: “This framework is a guide for operational excellence in bug bounty programs, not a mandate.” See the HackerOne Bug Bounty Maturity Framework and its program guidance resources.
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- Impact criteria and accepted severity: Check which severity levels qualify and what real-world outcomes the program considers important.
- Scope: Confirm the exact assets and vulnerability classes that are in scope, along with explicit exclusions.
- Rewards and examples: Look for published examples that clarify how the program distinguishes a qualifying finding from a low-impact or non-exploitable issue.
- Triage and report handling: Review how the program describes response expectations, duplicates, invalid reports, and disclosure.
- Testing constraints: Follow the program’s current authorization and testing rules; do not assume a vulnerability class is permitted merely because another program accepts it.
For an in-scope finding, provide a reproducible impact path, identify the affected asset and business function, and explain any steps in an exploit chain. A concise demonstration of what an attacker can actually do is more useful than a severity label without supporting evidence.
What should program owners make explicit?
Program operators can make impact-based prioritization easier to understand by publishing severity criteria, concrete examples, business-impact guidance, and attack-chain scenarios. Scope boundaries should be equally clear, including out-of-scope assets and how duplicates, invalid submissions, and disclosure are handled. HackerOne presents these practices as options for program maturity, not requirements every organization must adopt. Its framework also points to strategic campaigns as a way to focus researchers on priority assets or vulnerability classes.
Policy clarity should match triage capacity. If an organization wants reports about a particular class of high-impact risk, the program needs a credible way to assess those reports and explain outcomes. Comparing programs by their impact criteria, scope, reward examples, report handling, and disclosure rules helps operators and researchers understand differences—but those dimensions do not make separate programs equivalent.
Is this a universal shift?
No. The evidence here shows a specific reward-policy change by Coinbase for its Web2 HackerOne program and platform-reported data from Bugcrowd and HackerOne. It does not establish that every bounty program is reducing lower-severity rewards, or that the same factors explain each organization’s choices. Researchers should rely on the current policy for the individual program they plan to test.
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