Everything you need to know: costs, timelines, MAS compliance requirements, what auditors actually check, and how to evaluate whether a report is credible. Written by the team that has found 4 published Web3 protocol analyses and reviewed $292M+ in at-risk DeFi contracts.
By Feng Ning — Security Researcher & Founder, Innora.ai Singapore.45 assigned CVEs across automotive ECUs, IoT firmware, and AI systems.Author of the 48-hour automotive audit methodology and the Hyperlane ISM / Kelp DAO LayerZero forensic reports.
Smart contract audits in Singapore cost $20,000–$500,000 USD as a fixed fee, depending on contract complexity. Audits under 500 lines of code (LOC) complete in 5 business days; complex DeFi protocols take up to 10 business days. Reputable Singapore auditors fix the fee in writing before work begins, bill it across signing and delivery milestones, and include fix verification.
Singapore's Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has established one of Asia's most rigorous digital asset regulatory frameworks. Projects operating under the Payment Services Act (PSA) or seeking a DPT (Digital Payment Token) service license benefit significantly from audit reports that reflect Singapore's specific compliance context — not generic global templates.
Singapore-based auditors also provide faster turnaround for APAC-timezone projects, direct communication without cross-timezone friction, and familiarity with APAC DeFi ecosystem specifics including regional exchange integrations and local stablecoin regulation.
Reports structured to align with MAS Technology Risk Management guidelines
SGT hours eliminate cross-timezone delays for urgent pre-launch reviews
DPT service licensing requirements integrated into audit scope by default
A credible audit must verify your contracts against all of the following vulnerability classes. If a report only covers basic reentrancy and skips cross-chain or ERC-4337 vectors, it is incomplete.
| Vulnerability | Severity | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Reentrancy | Critical | Common |
| Flash Loan Manipulation | Critical | Common |
| Access Control Misconfiguration | High | Very Common |
| ERC-4337 Paymaster Drain | High | Emerging |
| Cross-Chain Replay | Critical | Emerging |
| Signature Replay | High | Common |
| Oracle Price Manipulation | Critical | Common |
| Integer Precision Loss | Medium | Common |
Based on 4 published Web3 protocol analyses and review of $292M+ at-risk DeFi protocols. See CVE1000 Research Dataset →
Traditional manual audits miss edge cases in complex DeFi composability. Automated tools alone generate high false-positive rates. The most effective approach combines AI pattern-matching at scale with human expert verification of the AI's findings.
The market splits into three bands. What separates them is depth of manual review and what you are handed at the end — not headline rate.
| Band | Typical range | What you get | PoC for every Critical |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automated scan + review | Under $15,000 | Tool output with light triage. Business-logic and composability flaws are routinely missed. | Rarely |
| Single-reviewer manual audit | $15,000 – $60,000 | One senior reviewer. Depth depends entirely on that individual; coverage degrades past ~2,000 LOC. | Sometimes |
| ★ Specialist deep-dive (Innora.ai) | $20,000 – $500,000 | Systematic coverage across 790+ vulnerability classes, manual expert review of every finding, threat model, fix verification, MAS TRM finding mapping. | Always |
Bands describe the market generally and are indicative only. Innora.ai fees are fixed in writing before work begins.
List all contracts to be audited: repository URL or deployed addresses, total LOC, key functions you are concerned about (cross-chain calls, admin functions, token economics). Clear scope = accurate quote in hours.
Contact the auditor with your scope. A Singapore-based fixed-fee auditor like Innora.ai replies within one business day, holds a scoping call under mutual NDA, and issues a written proposal with fixed fee, workplan and delivery date.
Work starts as soon as the signing milestone is settled. AI pipeline performs taint analysis, pattern matching across 790+ security classes, and generates Foundry test cases for likely vectors. Human experts investigate flagged issues and verify exploitability.
You receive a severity-classified report (Critical/High/Medium/Low/Informational) with a runnable Foundry PoC for every Critical and High finding. You can independently reproduce every exploit we report.
Fix identified vulnerabilities. A fix-verification round is included in the engagement fee and confirms your patches correctly resolve Critical and High findings.
The remaining 50% is due within 30 days of report delivery — USDC or wire transfer. No audit starts without agreed scope and pricing, and the fee is fixed in writing before any work begins.
Not all audit reports are equal. Many are rubber-stamp exercises that declare a contract "safe" without verifying exploitability. Here is what a credible report must include:
Every Critical/High finding must include a Foundry test that reproduces the attack. "Theoretically exploitable" without PoC = incomplete finding.
Report must list every function reviewed and state explicitly what was included or excluded from scope.
Severity ratings must reference attack prerequisites, impact magnitude, and exploitability — not just pattern detection.
Report should include post-patch verification confirming the fix resolves the finding without introducing new issues.
If your contract uses LayerZero, Hyperlane, Wormhole, or any bridge, the report must explicitly cover cross-chain message validation.
Economic attack vectors (price manipulation, liquidation gaming) require manual review — they cannot be found by pattern-matching tools alone.
Fixed fee. 50% on signing, 50% on delivery. 5–10 business day turnaround. Systematic coverage with manual expert review of every finding. Send us your scope and we reply within one business day.
security@innora.ai · innora.ai/audit · @Innora_sg