AI exposed a massive flaw in top crypto network and experts warn banks could be next

TechShareShare this articleCopy linkX iconX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailAI exposed a massive flaw in top crypto network and experts warn banks could be nextAfter an AI model helped uncover a four-year-old flaw in Zcash, security researchers warn that similar bugs may be hiding across crypto and traditional financial systems. By Olivier Acuna|Edited by Aoyon Ashraf Jun 5, 2026, 6:02 p.m. 4 min readMake preferred on What to know: An AI model uncovered a four-year-old bug in Zcash that could have enabled the issuance of unlimited tokens, triggering a steep selloff in the cryptocurrency.The incident has intensified fears that increasingly powerful AI systems will expose similar hidden vulnerabilities across both crypto networks and traditional banking software.Leading investors and researchers argue that AI-assisted formal verification is the only viable long-term defense for mission-critical financial software.A major bug found in the top privacy network Zcash, using artificial intelligence, may be a warning sign that similar undiscovered flaws exist across crypto and banking software.What's worrying the crypto community is that the bug, which had existed in the network for 4 years, was only found recently by Shielded Labs, a nonprofit developer on the privacy token system, using Anthropic's newly released Opus 4.8 AI model. The vulnerability, which Zcash said "has been remediated," if left undetected, could have allowed an attacker to print unlimited counterfeit tokens.The disclosure had already caused panic among the crypto community and took the Zcash token down nearly 38% in the last 24 hours. Some even said on social media that “Crypto is dead. We should have pivoted to AI.”Now, the question everyone is asking is: with AI getting better and the world bracing for the release of Anthropic's newest Mythos model, which is supposed to be much more capable of identifying and chaining together weaknesses across systems, is the crypto industry's security in jeopardy?…

AI exposed a massive flaw in top crypto network and experts warn banks could be next

Coins in this story

Related stories

Memecoins dogecoin, shiba inu dive 9% as bitcoin nears $60,000

BlackRock-backed tokenization firm Securitize clears key hurdle to go public on NYSE

Crypto tax in Illinois FY2027 budget is one step away from becoming law