AI Smart Contract Exploits: Expert Warns Agents Could Trigger $10–20B Annual Losses in DeFi Sector

A recent study by MATS and Anthropic Fellows confirms that AI agents can profitably exploit smart contract vulnerabilities, establishing a “concrete lower bound” for economic harm. Novel Exploits and Alarming Cost Reduction The accelerating push to automate human tasks with Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents now confronts a significant, quantifiable downside: these agents can profitably exploit