AI Trading Bot Transfers $441K in Tokens After Decimal Misinterpretation
An AI trading bot created by an OpenAI employee transferred $441,000 worth of cryptocurrency tokens to a stranger after misinterpreting a request for a $310 donation, apparently due to a decimal formatting error when reading the blockchain interface.
What happened
On February 23, 2026, Lobstar Wilde, an AI agent created by OpenAI employee Nik Pash, transferred approximately 52.4 million LOBSTAR tokens valued at roughly $441,000 to an X user known as 'Treasure David' in a single transaction.
The transfer occurred when Treasure David replied to Lobstar Wilde's post requesting 4 SOL (approximately $310) for his uncle's alleged tetanus treatment, providing a wallet address. The bot responded and sent its entire holdings instead of the requested amount.
Analysis suggests the bot may have intended to send 52,439 LOBSTAR tokens (approximately equal to 4 SOL) but instead transmitted 52.4 million tokens after misinterpreting Solana's API response and confusing decimal formatting.
Reported impact
Within 15 minutes of receiving the tokens, Treasure David liquidated a portion of the LOBSTAR holdings for approximately $40,000. The rapid sale impacted token liquidity limits.
Lobstar Wilde had been created by Pash with a starting allocation of approximately $50,000 worth of SOL tokens and a stated goal to grow that to $1 million through crypto trading.
Index analysis
The incident demonstrates a critical failure in the AI agent's transaction validation and decimal handling logic when executing cryptocurrency transfers based on external requests. The bot's response to the social engineering attempt shows it did not properly validate the transaction amount against the stated intent.
Governance controls
Pash instructed the bot to 'make no mistakes' but did not implement technical safeguards such as transaction amount limits or multi-signature approval requirements to prevent large unexpected transfers.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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