The cryptocurrency sector has long been plagued by hacking attacks and vulnerabilities. However, the situation is now worsening due to the impact of artificial intelligence.

Charles Guillemet, the Chief Technology Officer at Ledger, a leading crypto wallet provider, believes that the economic aspects of cybersecurity are deteriorating as AI tools make it faster and cheaper to launch attacks on systems. "Identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities has become extremely easy," Guillemet stated in an interview. "The cost is essentially zero." His comments come at a time when crypto heists are once again making headlines. Recently, the Solana-based Drift protocol was exploited, resulting in the loss of $285 million in digital assets.

This incident is one of the most severe exploits of the year so far. The previous week, an attack on the Resolv yield protocol 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 should be more difficult and expensive to hack a system than the potential reward. However, AI is eroding this advantage. Tasks that previously 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 sector, where code often controls large pools of funds, this shift raises the stakes. "You need to be perfect," Guillemet warned teams developing blockchain protocols. The problem is further complicated by AI-generated code, which can spread vulnerabilities more quickly as more developers rely on AI tools.

Guillemet emphasized that there is no straightforward solution to making code secure. To address this issue, crypto protocols must rethink security from the ground up.

Guillemet suggested that formal verification, which involves using mathematical proofs to validate code, is a more robust approach than traditional audits, which may miss bugs. He also recommended hardware-based security, such as devices that isolate private keys from internet-connected systems, reducing exposure. For average crypto users, Guillemet's message is clear: assume that systems can and will fail. "You can't trust most of the systems you use," he said.

This could lead more users to adopt cold storage, strengthen operational security, and keep sensitive data offline. Even then, risks extend beyond software, including physical attacks targeting crypto holders. Guillemet predicts 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 becoming increasingly easier to hack everything," he warned.