The crypto industry has long been plagued by hacking incidents and exploits. However, the situation is now worsening due to the impact of artificial intelligence (AI). According to Charles Guillemet, Chief Technology Officer at Ledger, a leading crypto wallet provider, AI is making it faster and cheaper for attackers to exploit vulnerabilities in 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 making headlines again, with recent incidents including the $285 million exploit of Solana-based DeFi protocol Drift and the $25 million attack on yield protocol Resolv. Over the past year, crypto attacks have resulted in the theft or loss of over $1.4 billion in assets, according to data from DefiLlama. The traditional security approach has relied on the principle that it should be more difficult and expensive to hack a system than the potential reward.

However, AI is disrupting this balance. 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 industry, where code often controls large pools of funds, this shift significantly 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.

'There is no magic button to make it secure,' he said. 'We will produce a lot of code that is insecure by design.' To address this issue, Guillemet suggests that crypto protocols need to rethink security from the ground up. He recommends formal verification, which involves using mathematical proofs to validate code, as a more robust approach than traditional audits. Hardware-based security is another layer, he said, with devices like hardware wallets isolating private keys from internet-connected systems and reducing exposure.

'When you have a dedicated device not exposed to the internet, it is more secure by design,' he said. As malware becomes more advanced, this approach is becoming increasingly relevant. 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 cannot trust most of the systems you use,' Guillemet said.

This could lead more users to adopt cold storage, stronger operational security, and keep sensitive data offline. Even then, risks extend beyond software, including physical attacks targeting crypto holders.

Guillemet expects a divide in the future, with critical systems like wallets and protocols investing heavily in security and adapting, while much of the broader software ecosystem may struggle to keep up. 'It's becoming easier to hack everything,' he said.