Bankr Disables Transactions After Crypto Wallets Compromised

AI-powered crypto trading assistant Bankr has halted transactions following a security breach affecting at least 14 wallets. According to Cointelegraph, users reported losses of up to $150,000 in cryptocurrency from some wallets. In a statement on X, Bankr announced it is investigating the incident and has disabled transaction activities, including swaps, transfers, and deployments, as a precautionary measure. Bankr confirmed that an attacker accessed 14 wallets and assured users that all lost funds would be reimbursed. The platform, which allows users to trade, transfer, and launch tokens using AI, automatically creates a crypto wallet for every X handle interacting with its bot. Earlier this year, a similar exploit occurred when someone manipulated this feature to drain funds from a token into a controlled wallet. Crypto hacking incidents have been on the rise, with over $168.6 million stolen in the first quarter of the year. Notable hacks include the $280 million Drift Protocol exploit and the $292 million Kelp exploit in April. More recently, Verus Protocol's Ethereum bridge was targeted. Yu Xian, founder of SlowMist, suggested that the Bankr exploit was likely a social engineering attack targeting the AI agent. Three attacker addresses have been identified, collectively holding $440,000 in crypto. Xian explained that the exploit involved unauthorized transaction signing between automated agents, specifically between Grok and Bankrbot. Bankr has advised users not to sign transactions until further notice and warned that one individual's seed phrase might be compromised. Users with affected wallets are urged to stop using them, create new wallets, generate new seed phrases on clean devices, transfer remaining tokens or NFTs to new addresses, and revoke approvals if assets cannot be moved. Bankr emphasized the importance of checking devices for malware or suspicious extensions, noting that software wallet leaks likely originate from the user's device. Some users on X reported losses of up to $150,000 per wallet. Tech entrepreneur Austen Allred revealed that a Bankr wallet linked to his Kelly Claude AI assistant project was compromised, resulting in the theft of Ether (ETH), although the project's memecoin stash remained untouched. Allred noted that there was no evidence of unauthorized access to the Bankr account, suggesting the keys were accessed through other means.