Crypto platforms – and investors – have long suffered from hacker attacks and exploits. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) is making this threat even worse.
That’s the view of Charles Guillemet, chief technology officer at crypto wallet provider Ledger, who said the cybersecurity economy is collapsing as AI tools make attacks on systems faster and cheaper.
“Finding vulnerabilities and exploiting them is becoming really, really easy,” Guillemet told CoinDesk in an interview. “The cost becomes zero.”
His remarks come as crypto heists make headlines again. Just this week, Solana-based decentralized finance protocol Drift was exploited, with attackers draining $285 million in digital assets. This is one of the most serious exploits of the year so far. A week before, an attack on the Resolv yield protocol resulted in losses of $25 million.
In total, more than $1.4 billion in assets have been stolen or lost in crypto attacks over the past year, according to data from DefiLlama.
From asymmetry to the arms race
Security has long been based on an imbalance: it should be more difficult and more expensive to hack a system than the potential reward.
But AI is eroding this advantage. Tasks that once took skilled researchers months, like reverse engineering software or chaining exploits, can now be accomplished in seconds with the right prompts.
For crypto, where code often controls large pools of funds, this change raises the stakes.
“You have to be perfect,” Guillemet warned teams developing blockchain protocols.
The problem is compounded by AI-generated code. As more developers rely on AI tools, vulnerabilities could spread more quickly.
“There’s no ‘secure’ button,” he said. “We’re going to produce a lot of code that’s not going to be secure by design.”
Raise the safety bar
For cryptographic protocols, this means rethinking security from the ground up.
Guillemet highlighted formal verification – using mathematical proofs to validate code – as a more robust approach than traditional audits, which can miss bugs.
Hardware security is another level, he said. Devices such as hardware wallets isolate private keys from internet-connected systems, reducing exposure.
“When you have a dedicated device that’s not exposed to the internet, it’s more secure by design,” he said.
This approach is becoming increasingly relevant as malware becomes more advanced. Guillemet described attacks that scan compromised phones for wallet seed phrases, allowing hackers to drain funds without user interaction.
For average crypto users, Guillemet’s message is straightforward: assume that systems can and will fail.
“You can’t trust most of the systems you use,” Guillemet said.
This could push more users toward cold storage, stronger operational security, and keeping sensitive data offline. Even then, the risks extend beyond software, including physical attacks targeting cryptocurrency holders.
Guillemet expects a fracture to come. Critical systems like wallets and protocols will invest heavily in security and adapt. But much of the broader software ecosystem may struggle to keep up.
“It’s definitely easier to hack everything,” he said.
