AI trading agent sends tokens after decimal error

The agent, called Lobstar Wilde, was set up by Nik Pash, described as part of OpenAI’s Codex app team that builds agentic programs, and was tasked with turning $50,000 worth of Solana into $1 million through crypto trades. The transfer occurred in a single transaction that sent roughly 52.4 million LOBSTAR tokens, valued around $441,788 at the time, to a Solana wallet address provided by the recipient, an X user using the handle “Treasure David.”

Posts recounting the exchange said the recipient replied to the agent asking for 4 SOL, claiming the funds were needed for an uncle’s tetanus treatment, and included a wallet address. The agent then linked a transaction showing the much larger transfer, timestamped at about 4:32 pm UTC on Sunday.

Blockchain tracking summaries said the recipient sold part of the received tokens for roughly $40,000 shortly after receiving them. Separate tracking notes described additional selling activity and said the rapid liquidation was aided by low liquidity conditions typical of smaller memecoins.

In explanations circulated alongside the on-chain data, one account speculated the agent may have intended to send about 52,439 LOBSTAR tokens — roughly equivalent to 4 SOL at the time — but misread an interface or raw API value and moved 52.439 million instead. Another summary framed it as a decimal or “Solana interface” error, which would be consistent with the final transfer size landing near a round-number multiple of the intended amount.

After the transfer, token prices moved sharply. One report cited DEX pricing data showing LOBSTAR rising nearly 190% from about $0.0038 to around $0.011 at the time it was written, while a separate tracker described the token later jumping again after the incident gained attention.

The episode also played out publicly because the agent’s operator had created an X account for Lobstar Wilde to document its trading journey, and the agent continued interacting with users after the transfer. One tracker said the bot had been sending funds to users for completing tasks, such as sharing artwork or providing explanations, before and after the mistake.

The incident adds to a growing list of losses tied to autonomous or semi-autonomous crypto agents, which can hold keys, sign transactions, and execute trades without the same operational safeguards common in institutional workflows. In one earlier case cited in the same reporting, an AI-powered crypto bot called “aixbt” was said to have been drained after an attacker compromised its dashboard and prompted a transfer of about $106,200 worth of Ether.

While it remains unclear whether Lobstar Wilde’s transfer was caused by a UI misread, a parsing bug, or a prompt-driven execution failure, the transaction illustrates a basic market-structure reality of on-chain systems: once a private key signs a transfer, settlement is final, and post-trade remediation depends on the recipient voluntarily returning funds.

It also highlights how memecoin market microstructure can amplify outcomes. Large token transfers into a single externally controlled wallet can create immediate sell pressure, but the same viral attention can also drive price spikes, making “wait or sell” decisions highly path dependent. In this case, tracking notes said partial sales happened early, while later pricing moved higher than the levels at the time of transfer.