AI-assisted hackers force Boltz to pull the plug on Bitcoin swaps

On Monday, Boltz indefinitely shut off its swaps. The non-custodial service that lets users move Bitcoin between the Lightning Network and Bitcoin’s base layer told users a rising wave of AI-assisted attacks had made it unsafe to keep running.

Lightning users and the small open-source teams hold much of Bitcoin’s payment plumbing. Boltz says the problem is how quickly attackers can operate now.

Boltz says attackers now iterate faster than fixes

Boltz said in posts on X that swaps are off “until further notice,” with no timeline for any possible return.

“To be clear: this is not a response to a single incident,” the Bitcoin bridge builder said. Over the past few months, it had seen a steady increase in automated, AI-assisted probing of its systems and had dealt with several exploits, each of which was contained.

“Attackers now iterate faster than a team our size can find and patch,” Boltz said. The recent security scans left the company unable to responsibly turn swaps back on while “being actively targeted by what appear to be multiple resourceful groups while we race to deploy fixes.”

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