Crypto investors have been rattled after a security researcher working with Zcash discovered a critical vulnerability using Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8. The flaw, which would have allowed an attacker to counterfeit an unlimited amount of Zcash tokens, had gone undetected for over four years.
The discovery highlights the increasing role of artificial intelligence in crypto security, as well as the growing threat of AI-powered hacking. Researchers say that AI tools are lowering the barriers for attackers, creating an arms race across the industry.
Zcash's founder, Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn, said it's unlikely the vulnerability had already been exploited, but developers are still trying to determine that. The wider adoption of AI has created new security questions for crypto projects, particularly given the open-source nature of many blockchain protocols.