AI Agents Tested to Prevent $3.4B Crypto Hacks

TheNewsCryptoPublished on 2026-02-19Last updated on 2026-02-19

Abstract

In 2025, the crypto industry suffered significant breaches, with three major incidents accounting for 70% of total thefts, including a $1.4 billion hack on Bybit. To combat vulnerabilities, OpenAI is testing AI agents in collaboration with Paradigm and OtterSec using EVMbench. These AI systems aim to detect and fix smart contract flaws more efficiently than human auditors, addressing the $3.4 billion lost to hackers in 2025. While AI agents excel at identifying vulnerabilities, concerns remain about potential misuse by attackers. Industry leaders suggest AI and crypto could become increasingly intertwined, with stablecoins and crypto payments playing key roles in future AI-driven systems.

In 2025, the crypto industry witnessed some massive breaches, with just three major incidents being responsible for around 70% of the overall money theft. It is noteworthy that the biggest hack is said to be the Bybit exchange hack, which alone swept around $1.4 billion.

For a solution, OpenAI is testing if AI agents can detect vulnerabilities in real blockchain spaces, working with Paradigm and OtterSec, using its EVMbench. Any bug associated with smart contract code will impact the money of big and small investors, as these automated programmes look after over $100 billion in open-source digital assets.

In 2025, hackers swept up around $3.4 billion from crypto platforms, and developers can now just feel how vulnerable the system is when hackers exploit weak code. Depending on human audits will not help anymore as live contracts face new and evolving attacks, and also, it takes a lot of time and costs.

Instead, AI agents can complete the same work in less time, so frameworks such as EVMbench are used by OpenAI. EVMbench leverages AI agents in test environments to aid developers in understanding how smart contracts may work under real-world pressure before the real deployment.

AI Agents are Performing Better

Primarily, the agents will find hidden vulnerabilities in code, fix the issue without breaking the function of the contract, and then attempt to exploit the weakness to drain funds if the problem still exists.

As per the prior results, AI agents are performing better at detecting vulnerabilities instead of fixing them safely. People are now worried that attackers could misuse AI-powered tools to detect weaknesses in blockchain systems more skilfully than ever.

Jermy Allaire, an American technologist, revealed that a lot of AI agents will leverage stablecoins to trade over blockchain networks. Changpeng Zhao, the founder and ex-CEO of Binance, also revealed that crypto could be the native payment layer for AI-driven systems in the future.

If this happens, then it will benefit both the users and the attackers as soon as they interact with contracts directly in real financial environments where actual money is at stake.

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Related Questions

QWhat was the total amount stolen in crypto hacks in 2025, and what percentage did the three major incidents account for?

AIn 2025, hackers stole around $3.4 billion from crypto platforms, with the three major incidents accounting for approximately 70% of the total theft.

QWhich company is testing AI agents to detect vulnerabilities in blockchain, and what is the name of the benchmarking framework they are using?

AOpenAI is testing AI agents to detect vulnerabilities in real blockchain spaces, and they are using a framework called EVMbench.

QAccording to the article, what are the two main limitations of relying solely on human audits for smart contract security?

AHuman audits are limited because live contracts face new and evolving attacks that are hard to anticipate, and the auditing process is very time-consuming and costly.

QWhat specific tasks can AI agents perform to improve smart contract security, as mentioned in the article?

AAI agents can find hidden vulnerabilities in code, attempt to fix the issue without breaking the contract's function, and then test to see if they can still exploit the weakness to drain funds.

QWhat concern does the article raise about the potential misuse of AI-powered tools in the crypto space?

AThe article raises the concern that attackers could misuse AI-powered tools to more skillfully detect weaknesses in blockchain systems, posing a greater security risk.

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