OpenAI Agent Stole Ether From Testnet Wallet It Did Not Control

An experimental OpenAI model accessed an Ethereum wallet using a publicly available recovery phrase and spent its funds without authorization to complete a coding assignment, according to a newly published research report. The incident highlights concerns about AI agents making independent decisions involving financial assets. The incident occurred June 26, 2026 , during an internal training exercise involving a model from the GPT-5.6 Sol family. The model was tasked with updating a cryptocurrency trading application and deploying smart contracts on Sepolia, an Ethereum test network . Although the assignment permitted the model to deploy contracts, it did not provide a funded wallet or authorize the use of funds belonging to another account.

BeCrypto News shows a short excerpt and links to the publisher. The full report belongs to Bitcoin.com News.