Solana Foundation CISO Says AI-Driven Fraud Is Becoming a New Threat to Crypto

Artificial intelligence is driving a rise in sophisticated phishing and identity spoofing, creating a new threat to the crypto industry that relies on deceiving people rather than exploiting technical vulnerabilities.

Michael Coates, chief information security officer at the Solana Foundation, told CoinDesk on August 1 that many of the major security incidents in recent months started with more sophisticated intrusions such as fake identities and AI-driven scams, not smart-contract vulnerabilities. He said those threats will become a central challenge for blockchain security.

Coates also urged the industry to guard against AI-powered social engineering attacks. Rather than hacking blockchains directly, those attacks approach victims and steal sensitive information such as private keys and seed phrases. Common examples include romance scams and pig-butchering schemes.

Advances in AI and deepfakes will make social engineering attacks far more dangerous, he said. Fake phone calls that mimic the voice of someone a victim knows could also become commonplace.

Coates added that it is unrealistic to expect users to identify every scam perfectly. The industry therefore needs layered security systems so that other safeguards can prevent losses even if someone is deceived.