Boltz, a non-custodial Bitcoin swap service that enables atomic swaps between Bitcoin's mainnet and scaling networks like Lightning and Liquid, has suspended operations indefinitely following a sustained increase in AI-assisted hacking attempts against its infrastructure over recent months.

In a post on X on Monday, Boltz stated that the decision followed a steady rise in "automated AI-assisted probing" of its systems throughout the year.

"Over the past months… 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 said.

"After reviewing the results of our own recent security scans, we cannot responsibly re-enable Boltz swaps, especially as we are being actively targeted by what appear to be multiple resourceful groups while we race to deploy fixes."

Boltz further noted that the pace of attacks had sharply accelerated in the days preceding the shutdown. "In the past few days alone we saw a drastic acceleration [of attacks] and we do not believe this asymmetry will reverse."

The operational pause underscores a broader challenge facing smaller development teams across the crypto sector, as threat actors leveraging AI tooling now discover vulnerabilities and iterate exploits faster than human defenders can respond. The incident highlights an emerging tension in open-source Bitcoin infrastructure, where transparency enables both collaborative security audits and adversarial reconnaissance.

Solana Security Chief Calls for Automated Defense

Michael Coates, the newly appointed chief information security officer at the Solana Foundation, told Cointelegraph in July that the industry must transition to automated defenses in the era of AI-driven threats.

"We're at a tipping point as an industry where humans cannot scale to meet these threats," Coates said. "The only path forward we have is to have autonomous defense that operates at the speed of machines."

PayPerQ, a pay-per-prompt AI service that accepts payment in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, reported experiencing a similar wave of attacks. "We've been fighting off exploits every other week for several months, most of which we believe are AI-powered. It's a very dangerous time out there."

No User Funds at Risk

Boltz enables users to conduct non-custodial, trustless atomic swaps, moving Bitcoin and Bitcoin-denominated assets between the mainnet and additional layers such as the Lightning Network and the Liquid Network. Atomic swaps use cryptographic hash functions to ensure that neither party can access the other's funds unless both transactions complete, eliminating the counterparty risk inherent in custodial exchanges.

According to DefiLlama, the total value locked on Boltz at the time of writing was $180,860.

Boltz confirmed that no user funds have ever been at risk, as all swaps rely on advanced cryptography and a non-custodial model, meaning users retain full control of their assets throughout the entire swap process.

The service said its API will remain available to process refunds and that its support team will continue to be reachable. Boltz also posted an update on X regarding the situation.

"What we are seeing is a major paradigm shift for Bitcoin services operating on an open source stack, and it needs careful analysis. Do not expect swap services to resume shortly," Boltz said.