The founders of the non-custodial Bitcoin service Boltz have announced their departure from the project following a series of attacks. The perpetrators allegedly carried them out using AI.
UPDATE ON THE FUTURE OF BOLTZ 📢
— Boltz — Non-Custodial Bitcoin Bridge (@Boltzhq) August 12, 2026
Over the past couple of months, AI-assisted attackers have been targeting Boltz with increasing frequency, intensity and sophistication. Several of these attacks succeeded, but because Boltz is non-custodial, user funds were never at risk. The...
According to the developers, the incidents became increasingly frequent, intense, and sophisticated. Several attacks were successful, resulting in losses for the service itself.
The team emphasized: user funds were not affected because Boltz does not hold client assets, meaning the developers themselves bore all the financial risk.
The platform allows for atomic swaps, facilitating transfers between the Bitcoin mainnet, Lightning Network, and Liquid Network. To prevent further damage from the actions of AI hackers, the developers suspended operations on August 3. At the time of writing, the service remains inactive, with a message about the project's handover pinned on the page.
The creators admitted that it was difficult for a small team of five people to withstand attacks of this level in the long term. Boltz will now be transferred to an unnamed group of 'Bitcoin veterans' who will provide the project with capital and additional engineering resources.
The new owners have already begun searching for and eliminating vulnerabilities and plan to resume swap services. The team did not disclose the investors' names.
All original founders of Boltz have immediately left the company and will no longer hold formal or managerial roles in the project. They will retain the opportunity to voluntarily participate in improving the service's open-source code.
"Defenders Need the Same AI as Attackers"
Almost simultaneously with the Boltz story, an appeal from the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) and representatives of the crypto industry to leading AI developers appeared.
They urged companies to create special trusted access programs to the most powerful models for Bitcoin developers and other critical open-source financial infrastructure. Signatories include Block, Coinbase, Strategy, BitGo, Kraken, Ledger, Trezor, MARA, Galaxy, and a number of other industry companies.
The authors of the letter believe that the development of AI is shifting the balance between attackers and defenders. Advanced models are already capable of analyzing large codebases, finding potential vulnerabilities, and accelerating complex cybersecurity work. However, access to such tools for open-source developers may be limited by the protective mechanisms of the AI services themselves or the lack of access to specialized security programs.
Bitcoin Red Team Returned to Chinese AI Models After OpenAI Restrictions
The result is a paradox: attackers are getting increasingly powerful AI tools, while legitimate researchers may be forced to use less capable models. Therefore, BPI proposes not to remove restrictions for everyone indiscriminately, but to create controlled programs for verified developers and open direct communication channels with cybersecurity teams.
To recap, in the first half of 2026, crypto projects lost about $1.1 billion due to hacks, and the number of confirmed exploits became a record for a six-month period, according to Blockaid.
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