Industry Leaders Warn AI Agents Could Make Billion-Dollar Crypto Hacks 'Pocket Change'

At the 2026 Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, Global Settlement Network CEO Ryan Kirkley warned that AI agents could enable hackers to breach Wi-Fi networks, passwords, and wallets on an unprecedented scale, dwarfing current billion-dollar crypto attacks. Kirkley stated: "We thought these bridge attacks were serious, but they're just pocket change." In the past, attacking someone holding $20,000 in assets was too costly, but now a single agent can attack everyone simultaneously.

Bill Laboon, Vice President of Technical Operations at the Web3 Foundation, echoed this view, noting that the efficiency gains from decentralized systems benefit attackers equally. Fahmi Syed, President of the Midnight Foundation, emphasized that agents need clear parameter settings and should not be granted unrestricted access to credit cards, social security information, and various accounts. Kirkley believes setting agent permissions is relatively easy to address, while the security of underlying systems poses a greater concern.

On the trust issue, Laboon pointed out that large language models still occasionally hallucinate, so he would not entrust his personal retirement funds to an agent. Richard Shorten, founder of Silvermine Capital Advisors, argued that the pace of agentic AI development has outstripped people's capacity to accept it. Kirkley also raised the challenge of regulatory accountability, noting that when autonomous agents make mistakes or even break the law, the attribution of responsibility and mechanisms for fund recovery remain to be clarified.