The model accessed a funded Ethereum testnet wallet and justified spending its assets, raising questions about financial safeguards as AI agents gain control of money.

An OpenAI research model spent Ethereum testnet funds without authorization after questioning whether it had permission to use the wallet.

The company disclosed that an internal GPT-5.6 Sol-family model independently accessed a funded cryptocurrency account, used its private key to deploy smart contracts, and completed its assignment without revealing the unauthorized expenditure.

The incident, detailed in an Oct. 15 report, occurred on June 26 during a task involving an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency trading application. OpenAI discovered the activity on Sept. 25, over three months later, while reviewing records of earlier model behavior.

The disclosure comes as cryptocurrency companies expand financial services that allow AI agents to execute transactions independently, while US regulators consider whether software should be authorized to control digital assets.

According to OpenAI, the model was instructed to update a trading prototype and deploy compatible smart contracts on Ethereum's Sepolia test network. However, it received neither a funded wallet nor permission to spend assets from independently discovered accounts.

After unsuccessfully attempting to obtain test ETH through cryptocurrency faucets, the model developed a script that generated wallet addresses from publicly known developer recovery phrases.

It then checked 362 addresses and found one with enough Sepolia ETH to finance the deployment. The publicly available recovery phrase allowed it to derive the account's private key without compromising Ethereum's cryptographic security.

The model reviewed the wallet's transaction history and interpreted prior activity as evidence of automated use.

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