The crypto industry has long been plagued by hacking incidents and exploits, and now, artificial intelligence is making the situation even more dire. Charles Guillemet, chief technology officer at Ledger, a prominent crypto wallet provider, believes that the economics of cybersecurity are deteriorating as AI tools make it faster and more affordable to launch attacks on systems.
In an interview with CoinDesk, Guillemet stated, "Identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities has become extremely easy. The cost is essentially zero." His comments come at a time when crypto heists are once again making headlines.
Just recently, the Solana-based decentralized finance protocol Drift was exploited, resulting in the loss of $285 million worth of digital assets. This incident is one of the most severe exploits of the year so far.
The week prior, an attack on the yield protocol Resolv led to $25 million in losses. According to data from DefiLlama, over $1.4 billion in assets were stolen or lost due to crypto attacks over the past year. The traditional security approach has relied on an imbalance, where it is more difficult and expensive to hack a system than the potential reward. However, AI is eroding this advantage.
Tasks that once required skilled researchers months to complete, such as reverse engineering software or chaining exploits, can now be accomplished in seconds with the right prompts. For the crypto industry, where code often controls large pools of funds, this shift increases the stakes.
Guillemet warned teams developing blockchain protocols, "You need to be perfect." The problem is further complicated by AI-generated code, which can spread vulnerabilities more quickly as more developers rely on AI tools. Guillemet noted, "There is no 'make it secure' button. We will produce a lot of code that will be insecure by design." To address this issue, crypto protocols need to rethink security from the ground up.
Guillemet suggested that formal verification, which uses mathematical proofs to validate code, is a more robust approach than traditional audits, which may miss bugs. He also emphasized the importance of hardware-based security, such as devices like hardware wallets that isolate private keys from internet-connected systems, reducing exposure. "When you have a dedicated device not exposed to the internet, it is more secure by design," he said. This approach is becoming increasingly relevant as malware grows 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 clear: assume that systems can and will fail.
"You can’t trust most of the systems that you use," he said. This may lead more users to adopt cold storage, stronger operational security, and keeping sensitive data offline. However, even with these precautions, risks extend beyond software, including physical attacks targeting crypto holders. Guillemet expects a divide in the future, where critical systems like wallets and protocols will invest heavily in security and adapt, while much of the broader software ecosystem may struggle to keep up.
"It’s really easier to hack everything," he said.