Octane – A blockchain hack prevention startup using artificial intelligence, successfully raising 6.7 million USD from Winklevoss Capital and other major players
Amidst the blockchain industry continuously facing increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, a rising startup named Octane is attracting attention thanks to its AI application to prevent hacks from the "cradle."
In just the first 4 months of 2025, losses from hacks have nearly reached 2.2 billion USD, almost equal to the total amount stolen throughout 2024. This is a clear warning for the entire industry: security is no longer an option, but a necessity.
🧠 Who is Octane and what is it doing?
Octane was founded in 2023 in San Francisco by Giovanni Vignone, a veteran software engineer in the crypto industry. Having witnessed a series of attacks on blockchain projects, Giovanni believes that the industry needs a more intelligent "AI protection layer" compared to traditional solutions.
According to Giovanni:
“Throughout my time in crypto, I've witnessed countless hacks occur – the damage has exceeded 11 billion USD. Teams spend between 50,000 to 200,000 USD per year to audit code, yet vulnerabilities still persist.”
Octane was born with the goal of "embedding AI security chips" directly into the software development process of blockchain projects, helping to detect and address errors before they are exploited.
🛡️ How Octane uses AI to protect blockchain
Octane's standout strength is its direct integration into the GitHub pipeline of developers:
🔍 Real-time code analysis as developers write.
🚨 Automatic alerts for potential security vulnerabilities.
📋 Pull request API summary, helping the team understand and respond quickly.
🧠 Optimizing error detection performance, from serious bugs to minor issues.
In other words, #Octane is like an AI security engineer accompanying each developer, closely monitoring every line of code, detecting errors early, helping save time – and money – before hackers discover vulnerabilities.
💰 Successfully raised 6.7 million USD: Trust from major players
On April 1st, Octane announced the completion of a fundraising round worth 6.7 million USD to scale up. This round included participation from:
💼 Winklevoss Capital – the investment fund of billionaire twins Tyler & Cameron Winklevoss (co-founders of Gemini).
🏦 Archetype, Druid Ventures, Circle, Gemini, Legion Capital, Duke Capital Partners, etc.
Tyler Winklevoss commented:
“Making crypto applications safer is very clear. And Gio and his team have built a great platform to help crypto developers write safer code.”
🌐 The future of Octane: Not just Ethereum
Currently, Octane focuses on projects using Solidity and compatible with EVM (like $ETH , BNB Chain, etc.). However, Giovanni stated that the team is planning to expand support for:
🔗 Solana
⛓️ Other non-EVM blockchains
Octane's long-term goal is to completely change how the blockchain industry approaches security:
“We want to turn every crypto team into a place with an AI security engineer – trained from millions of data samples and exploits – who can identify, classify, and alert vulnerabilities as soon as they appear.”
📊 Why does the market need solutions like Octane?
Recent prominent hacks demonstrate the vulnerability of blockchain:
Cross-chain bridge is the top goal.
Vulnerabilities often arise from complex code and lack of testing.
Even when a project has been audited, humans still easily overlook errors.
Therefore, real-time AI support is the “lifeline” for those who want to protect their assets and reputation.
🔍 Summary
Octane is not the first company to provide security for blockchain, but the approach of "AI accompanying developers from the first line of code" is being seen as a breakthrough.
As the cryptocurrency industry increasingly becomes a “big playground” worth trillions of USD, security is no longer an option. And Octane – backed by names like Winklevoss Capital – may hold the key to help the market avoid billions of USD in damages each year.
⚠️ Risk warning:
The cryptocurrency market always poses high risks, especially when security vulnerabilities are exploited quickly and stealthily. Choosing a security technology solution – like Octane's AI – is a necessary step, but cannot replace vigilance and good risk management from the project and investors. Always conduct thorough research and objective evaluation before participating in any ecosystem in the blockchain field.