Incident Command: What Stands Between You and a Complete Protocol Collapse
What if a protocol is drained before anyone can react? What if a rogue signer moves funds with no trace? What if response teams act without alignment? These are the questions Cantina has received from protocols, DAOs, and institutions with material exposure on the table. They reveal a gap not in tooling but in execution, and they demand structural command.
In the first half of 2025 alone, Web3 organizations lost over $2.17 billion to protocol exploits, credential compromise, and infrastructure failures. The largest incident accounted for nearly 70% of that total. Losses of this scale were not caused by new vulnerabilities. They were caused by slow detection, unclear authority, and misaligned execution.
A command that begins before an incident response may take place. A system that defines ownership, clarifies authority, and prepares organizations to act under pressure and respond accordingly if ever needed.
This is why Cantina’s Incident Command was built, to close that gap. Let’s dive in.
Command Is Built Before It’s Needed
Incident Command was developed to help organizations act with structure and precision in the moments that determine loss or containment. The most damaging security failures are rarely caused by novel vulnerabilities. They result from delays, unclear authority, and lack of operational alignment across legal, engineering, and governance functions.
The system creates the structure required to prevent escalation. Protocol dependencies, custody surfaces, and decision paths are mapped in advance. This command layer enables organizations to intercept threats before they become incidents, reducing the need for reactive containment.
Simulations expose gaps in readiness across both technical and human layers. Each one is followed by structured refinement, ensuring that command execution improves before it is ever required.
Security reviews and monitoring systems remain essential. But without the infrastructure to prevent responses under pressure, even accurate detection fails to prevent loss.
What Incident Command Enables
Incident Command is modular by design and deploys across five operational layers:
This layered approach allows protocols to adapt Incident Command to their current maturity and exposure.
System Capabilities
Designed From Real-World Exposure
Incident Command reflects operational lessons from live protocol incidents. These include:
- Smart contract failures without pause authority
- Validator and keyholder compromise
- Phishing escalation with no structured containment
- Governance breakdowns during decision-making
- Lost or invalid forensic artifacts due to fragmented tooling
Each feature in the system addresses one of these known institutional failure points.
The platform is operated by Cantina’s global command team, including security leaders with backgrounds in incident handling at Coinbase, Mandiant, and major Web3 protocols. Our team is trained to execute with speed and structure across borders, time zones, and operational domains.
Who Uses Incident Command
Incident Command is used by:
- Protocols preparing for high-stakes launches
- Organizations coordinating multisig custody and signer escalation
- DAOs managing cross-functional risk across contributors
- Institutions building security defensibility across internal and external stakeholders
Organizations use the system to:
- Validate readiness through live attack simulations
- Coordinate response under pressure with shared role ownership
- Preserve evidence integrity and reduce legal exposure
- Demonstrate defensibility to investors, governance, and regulators
Accessing the System
Cantina is onboarding a limited number of organizations per cycle. Each implementation begins with a readiness security review and includes simulation planning, role alignment, and custom playbook configuration.
Access is prioritized based on operational exposure and risk profile.
Ready to rank up your security posture? To begin, join the waitlist here.
Preparedness means acting under pressure with structure, speed, and accountability.
Incident Command is now live.