Bitcoin Red Team Unleashes AI-Powered Security Audits on Crypto Ecosystem
A volunteer security initiative called the Bitcoin Red Team claims to have used AI models to scan over 150 Bitcoin repositories and discovered more than a dozen vulnerabilities. According to AnchorWatch CEO Rob Hamilton, the team has spent around $20,000 on AI services, but funding is secured, so donations are not necessary. The team uses various AI models, including Kimi K3, OpenAI's GPT Sol, and Anthropic's Claude Fable, to identify vulnerabilities and generate supporting documentation.
The initiative has also built multiple AI-powered review systems targeting wallets, cryptographic libraries, infrastructure, and other Bitcoin projects. Pseudonymous developer Calle stated that they are averaging one critical exploit per hour per person, with the team reporting critical vulnerabilities to several projects in the last 12 hours. The team did not disclose which projects were affected or provide details of the vulnerabilities.
The announcement comes as AI plays a growing role in finding security flaws across the crypto industry. Researchers using Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8 uncovered a four-year-old flaw in Zcash that could have allowed attackers to create unlimited counterfeit ZEC, and Coinkite believes attackers used AI to identify the Coldcard wallet vulnerability.
The Bitcoin Red Team's efforts are part of a broader trend of using AI for auditing blockchains, with some projects suspending their services due to AI-identified vulnerabilities being exploited faster than they can be patched. The team emphasizes that their work is uncovering critical vulnerabilities across wallets, cryptographic libraries, and infrastructure.