Bankr Halts Crypto Transactions After Breach of 14 Wallets

A cryptocurrency trading platform powered by artificial intelligence has temporarily halted all transactions after an attacker gained unauthorized access to at least 14 user wallets. The platform, Bankr, which allows users to execute trades and transfers through plain language commands, is investigating the breach and has pledged to reimburse all lost funds.

The company announced it had identified the attacker and locked down transaction functions, including swaps, transfers, and token deployments, as a precaution. While the investigation is ongoing, early reports from users indicate individual losses may be as high as $150,000 per compromised wallet. The total value held by three identified attacker addresses is approximately $440,000.

Security researchers point to a sophisticated social engineering attack as the likely cause. According to SlowMist founder Yu Xian, the exploit targeted the trust layer between automated agents, specifically an interaction involving Grok, an AI assistant, and Bankrbot. This allowed for unauthorized transaction signing. Xian described the incident as a combination of social engineering and prompt-injection techniques, noting a similar method was...