Blockchain technology has been touted for its inherent resilience and security. However, as the industry continues to evolve, there has been a marked increase in the number of high-profile cyberattacks particularly on individual projects and cross-chain bridges. The financial implications have been staggering with approximately $2.2 billion worth of crypto stolen through exploits in 2024 alone. Barely four months into 2025, this figure is threatening to double, underscoring the dire need for improved security measures.
In the midst of this crisis, a new startup based in San Francisco, Octane, believes the solution may lie within the realm of artificial intelligence. Founded in 2023 by software engineer and CEO, Giovanni Vignone, Octane aims to address the cybersecurity shortcomings within the blockchain industry.
“Throughout my time in crypto, I’ve seen countless hacks and exploits. There’s a huge problem—over $11 billion has been drained from the ecosystem,” Vignone revealed. “Despite teams spending $50,000 to $200,000 a year on securing codebases, hacks keep happening.”
Vignone’s firsthand experience with the rampant cybercrime within the blockchain space led to the development of Octane. This AI-powered code auditor works in real time, assisting developers by identifying vulnerabilities as they write code. It integrates directly into the GitHub pipeline, running continuously as developers create code, summarizing API pull requests, flagging potential vulnerabilities, and helping teams identify exploits early.
Earlier this week, Octane announced it had successfully closed a $6.7 million funding round aimed at expanding its operations. The round, led by Winklevoss Capital and crypto investment firm Archetype, saw participation from other prominent entities such as Druid Ventures, Circle, Gemini, Legion Capital, Duke Capital Partners, among others.
Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss voiced his support for Octane in a statement saying, “The importance of making crypto applications more secure is obvious, and Gio and his world-class team have built just the platform to meet this need and help crypto devs and crypto companies ship more secure code.”
Originally designed for the Solidity programming language and Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible projects, the Octane team plans on expanding its support to other blockchains, including Solana. However, Vignone’s vision for Octane transcends beyond the detection of bugs. He envisions Octane redefining security implementation within the development process.
“Our goal at Octane is to build the future of security by bringing every crypto team an AI security engineer—trained on millions of exploits and data points—who specializes in identifying vulnerabilities and helping developers triage them,” he said.
With the increasing prevalence of cybercrime within the blockchain space, initiatives such as Octane offer a promising approach in mitigating the vulnerabilities inherent in the system, providing a more secure future for cryptocurrency.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair.
