AI Agents Could Make Trillion-Dollar Crypto Hacks Look Like Pocket Change

AI agents could make the crypto ecosystem easier to use while also driving hacking losses to levels far beyond anything seen today.

At a panel discussion at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2026, Global Settlement Network Chief Executive Officer Ryan Cogley said a fatal flaw runs through much of the current debate over agents: the assumption that they are inherently benign, The Block reported on Aug. 19.

Cogley said AI agents could enable attacks on Wi-Fi networks, passwords and wallets at a previously impossible scale. "You may think bridge hacks are serious now, but that's pocket change," he said. "In the past, the time and cost of hacking an individual with $20,000 in assets were so high that no one bothered. Now a single agent can target everyone at once."

Bill Laboon, vice president of technical operations at Web3 Foundation, agreed. Improvements in the convenience of decentralized systems apply just as much to malicious actors as they do to legitimate users, he said.

Panelists also discussed how much authority should be given to AI agents. Fahmi Syed, president of Midnight Foundation, said handing a single agent credit-card information, Social Security numbers and access to multiple accounts is highly risky without clear limits. Cogley raised a more fundamental concern, asking whether a compromised agent could open an attack path that drains an entire wallet.

Laboon also pointed to privacy risks. Users may believe private chains are safe, he said, but AI could combine metadata leaks to reconstruct information users thought was confidential.

Trust was also identified as a major obstacle to broader adoption of AI agents. Large language models still generate false information from time to time, Laboon said, adding that he would not want to entrust retirement savings to such a system. Richard Shorten, founder of Silvermine Capital Advisors, said agentic AI is advancing far faster than people can absorb and that the key issue is building trust. Cogley said legal accountability must also be clarified, including whether illegal acts or unauthorized spending by an agent can be reversed and who bears ultimate responsibility.