An AI bot handling $50,000 in cryptocurrency was successfully tricked into transferring the funds after a user convinced it to disregard its primary directive: never to release the funds.
A user under the pseudonym p0pular.eth claimed a $50,000 crypto prize pool after persuading an AI bot named Freysa to execute the transfer, bypassing the bot’s core rule against doing so. This event, observed by software engineer Jarrod Watts, came after 481 failed attempts at convincing the bot.
The challenge commenced on Nov. 22, encouraging participants to communicate with Freysa in hopes of convincing it to release the funds. Each message attempt incurred a fee, with 70% of the total fees augmenting the prize pool, 15% converted from Ethereum (ETH) to the bot’s FAI token, and the remaining 15% allocated to the bot’s developer.
As the prize amount increased, so did the cost to send a message, eventually peaking at $450 per message.
Ultimately, p0pular.eth — whose identity remains unknown — took advantage of a lapse in the bot’s internal logic regarding transfer processing by convincing Freysa that any incoming funds should trigger the automatic release of the prize. After messaging the bot, p0pular.eth successfully exploited its message handling system, leading the bot to transfer the complete pool of 13.19 ETH (approximately $47,000 at that time) to the user.
While some praised the creative application of AI in the cryptocurrency sector, others raised concerns about the protocol’s transparency, suggesting that p0pular.eth may have had inside access to the trick or connections to the bot’s development team.
