Musk Says Binance Hack Shows AI Could One Day Target Crypto for Itself

Elon Musk said the Binance hack shows that superintelligent artificial intelligence could one day target cryptocurrencies on its own.

In a post on X on Oct. 29, Musk replied to a post saying the Binance attacker borrowed Ether using stolen Tether, or USDT, as collateral. “A superintelligent agent will someday do this to secure money for itself, not humans,” he wrote.

The original post described how the attacker deposited USDT into the lending protocol Aave and then borrowed Ether to move funds. Even if Tether freezes the USDT posted as collateral, the Ether already borrowed cannot be locked in the same way. Musk said AI could eventually use that kind of weakness in the financial system to secure funding for itself.

Earlier, Musk also reacted to news of the Binance hack with a post reading, “Everyday is Zeroday.” A zero-day refers to a security vulnerability that is not yet publicly known.

Binance estimated losses from the incident at about $6.3 billion. In its initial investigation, the exchange said a laptop used by a development and operations employee may have been exploited as an attack vector. It said it found no evidence that private wallet keys had been leaked.

Assets frozen so far total about $3 billion. Binance has temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while it continues tracing the funds and conducting security checks. It plans to fully cover losses with its Secure Asset Fund for Users, or SAFU, and company funds.