Boltz halts Bitcoin swaps after surge in AI-assisted probes

Boltz, a non-custodial Bitcoin swap service, suspended swap operations until further notice after reporting a rise in automated, AI-assisted probes that intensified over recent months and accelerated in the days before the pause.

The company reported several contained exploits and said the speed at which attackers adapted exceeded its staff’s ability to patch vulnerabilities. Internal security scans led the team to conclude it could not responsibly re-enable swaps while the service was actively targeted.

Boltz provides trustless atomic swaps that let users move Bitcoin and Bitcoin-denominated assets between the Bitcoin mainnet and overlay networks such as the Lightning Network and Liquid Network without handing private keys to the service. Because swaps are non-custodial and rely on cryptographic protocols, Boltz reported no user funds were exposed.

DeFiLlama data showed roughly $180,860 locked on Boltz at the time of the announcement.

The company said its API will remain online to process refunds and that customer support will continue to assist users with outstanding transactions.

“We have dealt with several exploits. Each was contained, but the pattern is clear: attackers now iterate faster than a team our size can find and patch,” Boltz wrote. “In the past few days alone we saw a drastic acceleration and we do not believe this asymmetry will reverse.”

Security leaders and some service operators reported a broader rise in exploit activity they link in part to AI-assisted tools. In July, Michael Coates, chief information security officer at the Solana Foundation, stated humans cannot scale to meet these threats and urged development of automated defenses that operate at machine speed.

An operator of a pay-per-prompt AI service that accepts cryptocurrency payments reported fighting off exploits every other week for several months and described many of those attempts as likely AI-powered.

Boltz said it will continue work on patches and security hardening before restoring swaps and warned that other Bitcoin services built on open-source stacks may face similar pressure. The company advised users to expect a longer pause while fixes are developed and tested.