The post AI agents put to the test as crypto hacks hit $3.4 billion appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Developers are now using AI agents to protect smart contracts that control billions in digital assets, following crypto hackers’ theft of over $3.4 billion from blockchain platforms in 2025.  Rather than dozens of small thefts, 2025’s losses were concentrated in a few massive breaches, with just three major incidents accounting for nearly 70 % of the total value stolen. The most notable was the Bybit exchange hack, which alone siphoned off roughly $1.4 billion — one of the largest crypto thefts ever recorded OpenAI is working with Paradigm and OtterSec to test whether AI agents can detect vulnerabilities in real blockchain spaces using its EVMbench. AI agents review smart contracts to identify and fix security issues that lead to crypto losses Any error in smart contract code today will affect real money belonging to big and small investors, as these automated programs manage more than $100 billion in open-source digital assets.  And after hackers stole over $3.4 billion from crypto platforms in 2025, developers can now see just how vulnerable the system is when attackers exploit weak code.  Relying on human audits isn’t an option anymore because live contracts face new and evolving attacks that weren’t present during the audit process. Plus, it takes a lot of time and costs a fortune as security teams must review smart contract code before deployment. Instead of waiting for the next manual audit cycle that may come too late to stop an attack, developers are now turning to AI agents to continuously monitor live smart contracts. It takes AI agents less time to detect hidden code irregularities than people do, who may need days or even weeks, so frameworks like the EVMbench by OpenAI make more sense for developers. EVMbench uses AI agents in test environments to help developers understand how smart contracts may perform…

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Filed under: News - @ February 19, 2026 4:24 am