Changpeng “CZ” Zhao is warning that artificial intelligence could fuel a new wave of cyberattacks on crypto exchanges and banks, days after the largest theft in crypto history. On Oct. 29, ha
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao is warning that artificial intelligence could fuel a new wave of cyberattacks on crypto exchanges and banks, days after the largest theft in crypto history.
On Oct. 29, hackers drained about $6.34 billion from Binance in roughly 20 minutes, with $2.85 billion frozen or intercepted. The FBI blamed North Korea, which denies it.
Binance says it used $6.34 billion of its own funds to cover the losses, so users bear none of it.
In an interview with CoinDesk, Zhao said hackers are getting access to AI tools faster than financial institutions can deploy defenses.
“The industry needs to use AI to prevent AI hacks. There’s no other way,” Zhao told CoinDesk.
“A hack of this scale means serious security failures occurred. No platform is unhackable, but that cannot be an excuse. Every incident exposes weaknesses that should have been prevented,” CZ wrote in a latest post on X.
“Some details are embarrassing. Public explanations also simplify what appears to have been a prolonged multi month/year attack targeting hundreds of employees and systems, with a few ultimately compromised,” he wrote.
Related: Musk warned America will go 1,000% bankrupt. Now U.S. debt tops $40 trillion and counting
Zhao described the imbalance between attackers and defenders. “For attack, you only need to find one crack. To defend yourself, you need to find all the cracks and then fix them,” he said.
He argued that banks may be more exposed than exchanges.
“If a crypto exchange can be hacked, banks are in a worse position, in my opinion,” he said. Zhao also called for common security standards or an industry alliance. Discussions are underway, he said, but nothing has been agreed.
“In the short term, I think that we’re gonna see a lot more hacks,” he said, adding that AI could eventually strengthen defenses.
Zhao, who no longer runs Binance, offered no evidence that AI played a role in the breach.
In a preliminary report, Binance said the attack began in September, when an engineer was approached through a recruitment platform and tricked into downloading a malicious coding assignment.
By Oct, 20, attackers had used the compromised computer and an internal AI tool to reach two other engineers. An independent review is still pending.
“As a shareholder, I expect Binance to be transparent about what went wrong, take responsibility, learn from all criticism, and make meaningful improvements,” CZ wrote on X on Wed.
Related: Bitcoin's $350,000 price target comes with a terrifying warning, analyst says
If you follow our market coverage, don’t miss the Roundtable 100. Updated every Friday, it's a power ranking of the 100 most investable tech stocks, including digital assets. Check out the latest RTB 100 rankings at roundtable100.com.
