Zebec received an AA security rating on CertiK’s Skynet platform after completing five independent audits, placing the Solana-based payments protocol among the higher-positioned DeFi projects currently monitored on the platform. CertiK listed Zebec with a score of 86.9.
The audit history shows three Rust program reviews and two additional security assessments. Across the five reports, CertiK recorded eight findings, including one major issue linked to centralization risk, two medium-severity logical issues, two minor items and five informational points. Zebec resolved six findings from the audits, and it acknowledged two others. CertiK did not report any critical-severity vulnerabilities.
Zebec’s Past Incident Highlights External Risk, Not Contract Failure
Zebec’s published incident history shows no direct exploit of its streaming settlement logic. Its most visible security event occurred in December 2022, when an attacker compromised a Raydium liquidity pool holding more than $2 million of Zebec’s legacy token. Zebec said core contracts were unaffected, and remaining liquidity was withdrawn.
For a payroll system, that distinction matters. The risk belonged to the liquidity venue, not the payroll code. It also shows how DeFi security often breaks at integrations, not the core logic under audit.
Zebec operates in a niche that mixes real-time payroll, stablecoin settlement and on-chain treasury tools. Many rivals — including legacy crypto payroll platforms — do not publish smart-contract audits and rely instead on centralized custody, off-chain ledgers and bank-based settlement tools.
That approach reduces on-chain risk but increases custodial risk, where a platform controls user funds and carries operational responsibility for compliance, asset segregation and settlement timing.
In that context, a public, multi-year audit trail gives Zebec a stronger transparency position than competing models that prevent users from observing how settlement logic works or whether safeties exist around withdrawals and upgrades. For employers or DAO treasuries that prioritize programmability and auditability, the AA rating adds weight around platform selection.
Not a Guarantee — and Not a Complete Risk Picture
A CertiK score is not certification of safety, and the AA rating does not signal immunity from future exploits.
It means something narrower:
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the code evaluated during the audits had no critical weaknesses,
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most issues found were resolved, and
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project maturity and community metrics support ongoing observability.
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It does not cover:
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risk from third-party integrations,
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token liquidity exposure,
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upgrade-path centralization,
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governance capture, or
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regulatory uncertainty around payroll settlement using stablecoins.
Those areas sit outside the audit lens and remain material risks for any DeFi payments protocol.
The rating arrives as Zebec moves beyond web-native payroll into U.S. banking rails. Its partnership with NatPay, a U.S. payroll processor, puts Zebec’s settlement layer behind a FedNow-enabled workflow that uses standard NACHA files to deliver wages with instant settlement.
For institutional users, the combination of ISO 20022-aligned messaging, audited settlement logic, and real-time clearing changes the security profile: the protocol’s reliability becomes a prerequisite for compliance, not a marketing feature.
