Will AI Really Cause a Bitcoin Crash?

Is AI really a significant threat to Bitcoin? Liron Shapira, an AI commentator and popular presence on social media, recently claimed with “50% confidence” that BTC prices would fall 50% or more in the next two years. 

His argument is not that AI will suddenly hack Bitcoin overnight. Shipira’s view rests on the possibility that increasingly capable AI systems could expose weaknesses in the security assumptions, software and infrastructure that support the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

But almost as soon as that prediction had arrived, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin replied with the opposite view. So who’s right?

What’s behind Shapira’s prediction

Shapira is not the only person concerned that AI will make finding and exploiting cybersecurity vulnerabilities much easier.

Bitcoin’s underlying cryptography has endured for years, but the ecosystem is larger than the Bitcoin protocol alone. It includes wallet providers, exchanges, mining pools, node software, payment processors and the many libraries used to build crypto-related services. A weakness in any one of those layers could affect users, disrupt trading or undermine confidence in the market.

AI would not need to break the mathematical foundations of Bitcoin to cause a damaging event. If an advanced model helped attackers find a critical flaw in widely used wallet software, mining infrastructure or a major exchange, the impact could be severe. A large theft, prolonged service outage or exploit affecting a prominent Bitcoin company could fuel panic selling.