AI-Powered Attacks Surge: Blockchain Security Under Threat

The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in hacking has led to a growing imbalance between offense and defense in blockchain security.

According to a recent Binance Research report, AI-based tools are roughly twice as effective at exploiting smart contract vulnerabilities as identifying them. This is a concerning trend for the crypto market, which has seen a significant increase in AI-powered attacks.

The report notes that GPT-5.3-Codex, an AI agent, demonstrated a 72.2% success rate in 'exploit mode' on the EVMbench benchmark, compared to approximately half of that figure in 'detection mode'. This suggests that AI hacking tools are becoming increasingly effective at identifying vulnerabilities and exploiting them.

The cost of these attacks is also plummeting, with an average cost of $1.22 per contract projected to decrease by 22% every two months. Smart contracts hold billions in user funds across decentralized finance protocols, making them ideal targets for automated scanning.

As the crypto market continues to grapple with security challenges, industry representatives are sounding the alarm about the growing use of AI by criminals. With the economics increasingly favoring attackers and the cost of attacks decreasing, it is clear that a new era of threats is emerging in the blockchain space.