AI-Powered Crypto Hacks Slow Wall Street’s Move Toward Blockchain

Major financial institutions are showing growing interest in moving trillions of dollars in assets onto blockchain networks, but rising cyber threats are becoming a serious obstacle to wider adoption.

According to blockchain security experts, banks and traditional financial firms see long term value in using blockchain technology for faster transactions and lower costs. However, concerns over hacking risks continue to delay large-scale plans.

Security researcher Ronghui Gu said many institutions believe trillions, and possibly tens of trillions, of dollars could eventually move onchain over the next decade. Yet the increasing number of attacks targeting decentralized finance platforms is making firms more cautious.

AI-Driven Crypto Hacks Raise Concerns for Traditional Finance

Gu said financial institutions are worried about risks linked to smart contract weaknesses, oracle manipulation, cross-chain bridge attacks and AI-powered cyber threats.

He described April as the worst month for decentralized finance (DeFi) exploits in four years, with hacking incidents reported on 27 out of 30 days. According to his assessment, the sharp increase suggests attackers may be using artificial intelligence to speed up and improve exploit methods.

Major Crypto Hacks Expose Growing DeFi Weaknesses

Recent incidents have highlighted the scale of the problem. Drift Protocol and Kelp Dao reportedly lost nearly $600 million in attacks linked to North Korean cybercriminals. Earlier, crypto exchange Bybit suffered a record-breaking $1.46 billion breach.

Data from blockchain tracking platforms also showed more than $1.1 billion lost to DeFi hacks over the past year, increasing concerns about weaknesses in crypto infrastructure.

Gu argued that hackers often have an advantage because they can spend heavily on nonstop vulnerability scans, while security teams work within limited project budgets.