Industry leaders warn that AI agents could reduce billion-dollar cryptocurrency hacks to "spare change."

At the 2026 Wyoming Blockchain Conference, Global Settlement Network CEO Ryan Kirkley warned that AI agents could allow hackers to invade Wi-Fi networks, passwords, and wallets on an unprecedented scale, making current billion-dollar crypto attacks seem trivial. Kirkley stated, "We thought these bridge attacks were serious, but they are actually just pocket change." In the past, attacking someone with $20,000 in assets was too costly, but now an agent can attack everyone simultaneously.

Bill Laboon, Vice President of Technical Operations at the Web3 Foundation, agreed, believing that the efficiency gains brought by decentralized systems also benefit attackers. Fahmi Syed, President of the Midnight Foundation, emphasized that agents need clear parameter settings and should not be granted unrestricted access to credit card, social security information, and various accounts. Kirkley believes that setting agent permissions is relatively easy to resolve, while the security protection of the underlying systems is a greater concern.

Regarding trust issues, Laboon pointed out that large language models still occasionally produce hallucinations, which makes him reluctant to entrust personal retirement funds to agents. Richard Shorten, founder of Silvermine Capital Advisors, believes that the development speed of agent AI technology has exceeded people's capacity to accept it. Kirkley also mentioned the regulatory responsibility dilemma, where the attribution of responsibility and the mechanism for recovering funds remain unclear when autonomous agents make mistakes or even break the law.