AnchorWatch CEO and Bitcoin Red Team founder Rob Hamilton announced on X that his team’s OpenAI access was cut off on Saturday, forcing them to switch to Chinese open-source AI models. The ban occurred just a day after the team of 16 volunteers began integrating OpenAI’s Trust & Cyber capabilities to scan for vulnerabilities in hundreds of open-source Bitcoin repositories.
“It truly breaks my heart as an American patriot to have to do this,” Hamilton said in response to OpenAI’s decision. He added that the blocking incident cut off their ability to continue ongoing security investigations. However, what makes this news stand out is not just the termination of access, but the timing of when this shutdown was imposed.
Hunting for Vulnerabilities After a Hundred-Million-Dollar Tragedy
This volunteer team was formed and went into action shortly after the hack of Coldcard hardware wallets. The incident targeted a flaw in the random number generator responsible for creating seed phrases, leading to the loss of over $100 million worth of Bitcoin from 7,300 victim wallets. The event was recorded as the third-largest crypto hack of 2026, contributing significantly to the industry’s total losses from crypto theft in July, which surpassed $247 million.
Armed with a combination of AI power and human evaluation processes, the Bitcoin Red Team combed through code to prevent similar cases from recurring. As of Saturday, August 8, they had detected 1,288 critical and high-severity vulnerabilities across the Bitcoin ecosystem. This figure is an update from a previous Hodler’s Digest report that mentioned findings of 7,958 total security issues, with 168 classified as critical and 1,120 as high-risk. The team’s identification speed was highlighted in a report by Calle, a Bitcoin developer and Red Team member, who noted that each person found an average of one critical exploit per hour.
Rules That Bind the Wrong Party
Hamilton highlighted the restriction policy which, in his view, actually harms network security defenders. “Black hat hackers will not run into these restriction issues. The white hats are the ones who will be affected,” he emphasized. He concluded this situation was a policy low point, where artificial intelligence becomes an unrestricted tool for those who refuse to follow the rules of the game.
This case of blocking the Bitcoin security team proves concerns that have been voiced for a long time. Last month, several crypto executives stated that many major players still have to join waitlists to use the strongest AI models to secure their code. For self-custody wallet users, the loss of security researchers’ tools means that potential device vulnerabilities will take longer to patch - giving hackers leeway they do not need.
Reported from Cointelegraph.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
