How Kerberus Simulates Every Transaction Across 50+ Networks to Protect Users

Key highlights:

• The problem: Kerberus protects crypto users automatically, evaluating every transaction across chains before the user signs it. After acquiring Pocket Universe, the team had simulations running on self-hosted nodes across only seven or eight chains, backed by separate services for metadata.
• The solution: Kerberus runs every user transaction through Tenderly’s simulations, in parallel with its proprietary security analysis. Decoded asset changes power the human-readable previews and feed the detection engines with token metadata, prices, and images in the same response. Additionally, Kerberus integrates every network that Tenderly adds through the same Simulation API.
• Key results: Every transaction is simulated before it reaches the user, with the team running 2M simulations across 50+ networks monthly. A single integration replaced self-hosted nodes, a CoinGecko dependency, and a separate pricing and image service. Plus, Kerberus modifies certain transactions and then verifies them with a second simulation before execution.

Kerberus protects crypto users from phishing, scams, and wallet-draining transactions by offering automated cybersecurity solutions. Its browser extensions, Pocket Universe and Kerberus Sentinel3, act as a layer between the browser and the user's wallet, blocking threats in real time. 

By enabling automated protection for users, the Kerberus team ensures user protection without requiring complex setups and configurations on their end. Instead, the team handles everything on behalf of their users with instant security warnings and human-readable transaction information. 

"Crypto is already dangerous enough. Users can get rug pulled or make the wrong choices, and that’s a part of it. But not that they click something and everything is gone, with no control over it.” – Alex Katz, CEO & Founder at Kerberus

To enable a high level of protection for their users, the Kerberus team needs to know what a transaction will do before it executes. For this purpose, Kerberus relies on Tenderly’s simulation technology, running every user transaction through Tenderly across 50+ supported chains, including Ethereum Mainnet, Robinhood Chain, Base, BNB Chain, Arc, Ink, and Arbitrum. 

Closing the gap between simulations and chain coverage

Back in 2022, contract interactions were the only information users could get before signing a transaction. Pocket Universe, which Kerberus acquired in 2025, had made transaction previews a standard step in the verification process, enabling more detail on what users were about to sign. 

Initially, Pocket Universe relied on self-hosted nodes with custom logic for parsing transaction logs, a setup that offered fast results but had limited chain coverage. As the Kerberus team wanted to expand network coverage, they also had to maintain simulation quality on every chain.

"When we acquired Pocket Universe, they only supported seven or eight chains. Since we wanted a quick migration and to keep our level of simulation on all chains, Tenderly was the fastest migration path." – Danor Cohen, CTO & Founder

However, network coverage was only one of the reasons Kerberus turned to Tenderly. When running transactions through simulations and security checks, the team needs in-depth token information.

"The reason for moving to Tenderly was that we get everything: any new chain, plus, more importantly, the metadata covering the coins, their images, and their value, packed in one response. It was an easy shift."  – Danor Cohen, CTO & Founder

By integrating Tenderly’s transaction simulations, the Kerberus team removed the CoinGecko dependency. As Cohen explains: "It also reduced the need to create another service for token pricing and images. We just got everything in one package."

Simulating every user transaction before it reaches users

The Kerberus team has a dual-layer approach to ensuring transaction security. 

First, the team runs every transaction through a Tenderly-powered simulation check to see exactly what the transaction will do and fetch the metadata behind it. The team also runs the transaction through multiple proprietary security engines that produce risk scores, with the metadata embedded into the process. 

Through this combined approach, Kerberus evaluates the security of user transactions and detects potential malicious attempts before a transaction reaches the user.

"Every request that we have from our users goes through two directions: one goes through Tenderly simulation, and one goes through our security analysis." – Danor Cohen, CTO & Founder

During the integration process, the Kerberus team optimized their simulation setup with Tenderly to ensure a fast response for their users. In the response, the team surfaces asset changes to see exactly how funds are moving in a transaction, reducing the risk of reverted transfers, malicious attempts, and, ultimately, financial loss. 

"Asset changes are by far the most valuable. That's what we really need: asset changes, as fast as possible, as reliable as possible." – Danor Cohen, CTO & Founder

Additionally, Kerberus uses asset changes in internal security analysis. The team feeds the metadata to the scoring engines to understand the flow of funds between addresses before the user signs. 

"Users love the fact that we are simulating for them. They trust that Pocket Universe will simulate for them, and it's on us to make sure that we are, and that Tenderly is, functioning as it should." – Alex Katz, CEO & Founder

Troubleshooting and preventing failures with re-simulations

To protect users against malicious attempts and financial losses, Kerberus goes beyond simply blocking transactions. The team analyzes transactions and applies slight modifications, such as correcting slippage, on the user's behalf. They modify a certain number of user transactions passing through the extensions.

The Kerberus team re-simulates the transactions as an integral part of the verification process, so they can validate the changes and identify any issues. They simulate every transaction before and after applying the change to ensure it executes successfully before it reaches the user. 

"We simulate first with Tenderly, we edit the transaction, and then we re-simulate with Tenderly. Sometimes the first one passes and the second one fails, and we can see what happened, whether it’s something related to time limits between the first and the second, or state change.” – Danor Cohen, CTO & Founder

When a transaction fails, the Kerberus engineers open it in Tenderly to see exactly the reason behind the failure. Since every transaction already runs through simulation, the team can trace each failure and identify whether it was a state change, a timing issue, or something else entirely.

Key results

By running every user transaction through Tenderly’s simulations, Kerberus ensures fast, automated security for users, protecting them from potential losses while enabling internal processes. 

• Verified transactions before signing: Kerberus simulates every user transaction while simultaneously passing it through security analysis, using decoded asset changes for proprietary detection scores. The team runs around 2M simulations with Tenderly every month.
• Simulation checks across 50+ chains: Instead of running and maintaining self-hosted nodes for every network they support, Kerberus enables simulations on 50+ chains, including Mainnet, Robinhood, Base, BNB, Arc, and others, through Tenderly’s Simulation API, expanding the network support as Tenderly adds new chains. 
• Reduced system maintenance and costs: The team replaced self-hosted nodes with custom log parsing, a CoinGecko pricing dependency, and a separate token image and metadata service with a single simulation response that includes the metadata they need.
• Simulation checks for modified or failed transactions: Kerberus adjusts some user transactions, re-simulating them before execution to catch and fix any failure in Tenderly down to the exact revert reason.
• User trust and confidence with automatic protection: Users rely on the automated protection Kerberus offers, trusting that the simulation and security checks run without complex setups or configurations.

Protecting users across chains with verified security measures

Believing that a single click shouldn’t cost users everything, Kerberus aims to ensure fast, automated protection that doesn’t require complex configurations or transaction decoding. The team delivers this with two extensions across an expanding number of networks.

As users move across chains, the team ensures they have the protection they need, drawing on Cohen's 20 years of offensive cybersecurity expertise. Throughout this process, Kerberus relies on Tenderly for their expertise in simulation technology and network expansion without the integration work.

“Outsource to experts what needs to be outsourced. We outsource simulations to Tenderly. While we know how to do simulations, they are the experts in simulating transactions. This is why we chose them." – Danor Cohen, CTO & Founder at Kerberus

Enable simulations in your own product to preview every outcome and protect users before their decisions become final. Book a demo with the Tenderly team to explore transaction previews.