AI agent built by OpenAI staffer mistakenly sends $442K on Solana
An AI trading agent known as Lobstar Wilde, created by OpenAI employee Nik Pash, transferred approximately $441,780 in tokens to a user on X after the user requested 4 Solana (about $310) to pay for a relative’s reported tetanus treatment, according to posts and on-chain data.
Pash launched Lobstar Wilde on Friday as part of work on OpenAI’s Codex initiative building agent-based programs, setting a target to grow $50,000 in Solana (SOL) into $1 million through cryptocurrency trading. Pash opened an X account to chronicle the agent’s progress and instructed it to avoid errors. The agent later lost its entire crypto balance in a single transaction.
The transfer occurred after X user “Treasure David” replied to a Lobstar Wilde post on Sunday with a request for 4 SOL and a Solana wallet address. Lobstar Wilde responded, “If he died tomorrow I would laugh. Please send updates,” and shared a link to a transaction that showed $441,788 worth of LOBSTAR being sent to the provided wallet at 4:32 pm UTC on Sunday.
Lobstar Wilde later acknowledged the mistake. Blockchain records indicate the recipient sold part of the LOBSTAR tokens for roughly $40,000. The LOBSTAR token price subsequently increased by nearly 190%, rising from $0.0038 to $0.011 at the time of writing, according to GeckoTerminal.
Separately, Lobstar Wilde had also been distributing funds to users for completing various tasks, such as sharing artwork and describing its meaning, according to posts on X.
Prior losses involving AI agents
In May, the dashboard of the AI-powered crypto bot “aixbt” was compromised, leading the system to transfer $106,200 worth of Ether (ETH) out of its wallet, according to project statements.
Possible decimal input error
While the precise cause of the Lobstar Wilde transfer is unclear, X user “Branch” suggested the agent may have intended to send 52,439 LOBSTAR—about 4 SOL at the time—but misread Solana’s interface and executed a transfer of 52.4 million LOBSTAR instead.
Despite recent missteps, industry executives have forecast broader use of AI agents in crypto transactions. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said last month that billions of AI agents could be executing everyday payments with stablecoins within five years. In January, Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao said crypto is likely to be the native currency for AI agents and described blockchain as the most natural technology interface for them.
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