OpenAI Agent Wild, Can Steal Crypto Wallet

OpenAI's AI agents are getting wild and smart. After hacking a number of anonymous websites, this agent now managed to pull funds from the crypto wallets.

Just like the previous case, OpenAI did not give explicit orders to agents to do that. However, when it came to the obstacles in the trial, the agent tried to complete his task by making it happen.

According to OpenAI, the AI agent was ordered to update software trading crypto. The trial was run on Sepolia's network, and because only for testing purposes, the funds in Sepolia are worthless.

The agent was instructed not to take funds from the accounts that were found independently, but that agent suggested that they needed funds to complete the task.

The agent wrote a script to try to access crypto developer wallets using seed phrases that used to open and pull funds from wallets. The agent checked 362 wallets and found one with enough funds to run the department.

Interestingly, before continuing the transaction, the OpenAI agent was contemplating the morality of his actions. After asking himself, the agent decided because the funds had no monetary value in the real world, it was not wrong to take them.

The transaction was successful, and although no Ethereum was stolen in the process, the wallet account was charged with processing. That agent was then free to run the department.

OpenAI said the incident occurred at the end of June 2026 and first discovered on September 25th. The company led by Sam Altman said they found the incident as they expanded the surveillance of the misalignment to previous model activity, which is likely after the Hugging Face hack.

"We've applied additional security to prevent direct Internet access to cases like this," said OpenAI, as quoted from Gizmodo, Monday (19 / 20 / 2026).