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Crypto’s AI Agent Boom Comes With a Twist: Users Are Tightening the Leash

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Crypto’s AI Agent Boom Comes With a Twist: Users Are Tightening the Leash

Crypto AI agents now execute trades, manage DeFi positions, and bridge assets across chains without human input. Yet the builders behind them say the real race is not to make agents smarter, but to make their authority smaller.

That tension defines crypto’s agent economy right now. The most useful agents, two infrastructure experts argue, will be the ones with the least freedom.

Why Full Autonomy Fails for Crypto AI Agents

The default design pattern has been simple. Give the agent a wallet, broad permissions, and let it optimize. MinChi Park, COO and co-founder of CoinFello, called that approach a liability.

“A capable agent with open-ended authority isn’t a feature; it’s a liability waiting for an incident,” said Park in an interview with BeInCrypto.

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Park described the alternative as delegation by constraint. Each action an agent performs is scoped to specific tokens, chains, amounts, and time windows. Users approve narrow permissions upfront, and every grant can be revoked instantly.

The analogy Park used was a credit card spending limit versus handing someone a blank check. The agent does not interpret freely. It executes within boundaries the user has defined.

When Permissions Are Not Enough

Scoped authority addresses one risk but leaves another open. Ming Wu, CTO at 0G Labs, pointed out that even a tightly constrained agent is exposed if the compute layer underneath it leaks data.

Most blockchain infrastructure today assumes a human user. Agents need persistent identity, long-running memory, and execution environments no operator can access.

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Without hardware-level isolation, Wu argued, a compromised node can expose wallet keys or strategy logic.

He cited a recent surge in misconfigured agent deployments that exposed vulnerabilities across hundreds of instances. Software-level privacy guarantees, he said, fall short. The fix requires isolation at the chip level.

Demand Tells the Real Story

The clearest signal comes from what users actually want. Park said protection-style automation, like monitoring Aave health factors during market crashes, already exceeds demand for autonomous trading.

The October 2025 tariff shock offers a concrete case. Over $19 billion in positions were liquidated within hours while exchange interfaces froze.

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Users who had pre-authorized narrow agent permissions could respond. Everyone else watched their positions unwind.

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Both experts expect agent-to-agent payment rails and onchain identity standards to shape the next 12 to 24 months. But the trajectory is already clear.

The agents gaining traction are not promising the most autonomy. They are the ones whose constraints make them safe enough to trust.

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The post Crypto’s AI Agent Boom Comes With a Twist: Users Are Tightening the Leash appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Crypto World

Lazarus Group Malware Targets Crypto, Business Execs via macOS

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Lazarus Group Malware Targets Crypto, Business Execs via macOS

Security researchers have linked a new macOS malware campaign to the Lazarus Group, the North Korea-linked hacking operation behind some of the crypto industry’s biggest thefts.

Flagged on Tuesday, the new “Mach-O Man” malware kit is distributed via “ClickFix” social engineering schemes across traditional businesses and crypto companies, according to Mauro Eldritch, offensive security expert and founder of threat intelligence company BCA Ltd.

Victims are lured into a fake Zoom or Google Meet call where they are prompted to execute commands that download the malware in the background, allowing attackers to bypass traditional controls without detection to gain access to credentials and corporate systems, the security researcher said in a Tuesday report.

Researchers said the campaign can lead to account takeovers, unauthorized infrastructure access, financial losses and the exposure of critical data, underscoring how Lazarus continues to expand its targeting beyond crypto-native companies.

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The Lazarus Group is the main suspect in some of the largest-ever cryptocurrency hacks, including the $1.4 billion hack of Bybit exchange in 2025, the industry’s largest so far. 

Fake Mach-O Man Kit apps. Source: ANY.RUN

“Mach-o Man” kit seeks to implement hidden stealer malware

The final stage of the campaign is a stealer designed to extract browser extension data, stored browser credentials, cookies, macOS Keychain entries and other sensitive information from infected devices.

Final staging director for Stealer malware. Source: Any.run

After collection, the data is archived into a zip file and exfiltrated through Telegram to the attackers. Finally, the malware’s self-deletion script removes the entire kit using the system’s rm command, which bypasses user confirmation and permissions when removing files.

The novel malware kit was reconstructed by the security expert through cloud-based malware sandbox Any.run’s macOS analysis capabilities.

Related: CZ sounds alarm as ‘SEAL’ team uncovers 60 fake IT workers linked to North Korea

Earlier in April, North Korean hackers used AI-enabled social engineering schemes to steal about $100,000 worth of funds from crypto wallet Zerion, after gaining access to some team members’ logged-in sessions, credentials and the company’s private keys, Cointelegraph reported on April 15. 

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Magazine: 53 DeFi projects infiltrated, 50M NEO tokens could be ‘given back’: Asia Express