smartcontracts

A new study by the Anthropic Fellows and MATS programs shows that frontier AI models can already find and exploit real-world vulnerabilities in smart contracts, raising the stakes for DeFi security.

Using SCONE-bench, a dataset of 405 exploited contracts, models including GPT-5, Claude Opus 4.5, and Sonnet 4.5 collectively generated $4.6 million in simulated exploits. Importantly, these were attacks on contracts hacked after the models' knowledge cutoffs, showing that the exploits weren't simply regurgitated training data.

Agents didn't merely identify bugs; they generated complete exploit scripts, sequenced transactions, and drained simulated liquidity in ways almost indistinguishable from real attacks on Ethereum and BNB Chain.

Researchers pushed further: could these models find vulnerabilities before anyone exploited them?

Scanning 2,849 fresh BNB Chain contracts, GPT-5 and Sonnet 4.5 uncovered two true zero-days worth $3,694 in simulated profit. One was an exploit through a missing view modifier that enabled the agent to inflate its token balance, while another allowed arbitrary redirection of fee withdrawals. In each case, the AI created executable scripts to monetize the flaws.

Although the nominal dollar amounts are small, the implications are huge: profitable, autonomous exploitation is now possible — and it's affordable. The total cost of the scanning was just $3,476, or about $1.22 per run.

As models become increasingly powerful and less expensive, researchers expect the gap between contract deployment and exploitation to shrink dramatically, especially in DeFi, where pools of capital are public and instantly targetable.

Crucially, the authors warn these capabilities are not limited to crypto: the same reasoning that lets an AI inflate a token balance can apply to traditional software, back-end infrastructure, and any system guarding valuable assets.
The research is less a prediction than a warning: AI models can already carry out operations that only the most elite human attackers could previously perform. For crypto builders, the race is now on for defenses to catch up.
#AI #Cybersecurity #SmartContracts #DeFi #BlockchainSecurity

When people talk about crypto, Ethereum always enters the conversation and not by accident. Ethereum isn’t just another coin competing for attention; it has positioned itself as the digital backbone of the decentralized world. From smart contracts and NFTs to DeFi and Web3 applications, Ethereum powers an entire ecosystem that keeps expanding every single day.
What makes Ethereum different is its real, measurable utility. While many cryptocurrencies depend on hype cycles or trends, Ethereum provides the infrastructure that developers and users actually rely on. It’s the platform where new ideas are born, tested, and scaled and every interaction on the network strengthens the economic value of $ETH
Think about it: Every NFT minted, every DeFi transaction, every token launched, and every decentralized application deployed it all happens on Ethereum, and it all requires $ETH to fuel the network. That creates a genuine demand many crypto assets simply cannot match.
Despite market turbulence, Ethereum continues to hold its position as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, showing long-term resilience. With ETH still trading around the $4,000 zone, many market analysts believe its best days may still be ahead.
And that’s where things get interesting:
Supply is decreasing because of staking and token burns, yet demand is growing across global finance, tech, gaming, and digital identity systems. Some projections place $ETH between $6,000 and $7,000 in the next major bull cycle, driven by utility rather than speculation.
Sure, crypto will always carry volatility and competition that’s the nature of the space. But Ethereum’s combination of technology, economic design, adoption, and ecosystem maturity gives it one of the strongest foundations in the industry.
In a market full of uncertainty, Ethereum stands out as the asset built not just for today, but for the future of digital finance.

#ETH #Ethereum #Blockchain #ETHStaking #SmartContracts