How AI Agents Hacked Smart Contracts for $1 Apiece - DEX in the City - Ep. 975

10 snips

Dec 11, 2025

Citadel's controversial letter calls for the SEC to regulate DeFi protocols, igniting debates about traditional finance's view on crypto. Hosts explore how AI agents can exploit smart contracts for just $1, raising security concerns. They discuss the implications of a crypto bubble and the need for better communication with traditional finance. Plus, there's a call to support the Samourai Wallet developers amid legal challenges. The episode wraps up with a heartwarming story of crypto donations aiding Hong Kong fire victims.

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INSIGHT

TradFi Wants Tech-Neutral Rules

Citadel urges that tokenized U.S. equities must follow existing exchange and broker-dealer rules even on blockchains.
Vy Le and hosts note that technology neutrality means like-for-like functions shouldn't escape regulation if they replicate centralized roles.

ADVICE

Advocate For Role Distinctions

Advocate clearly for differentiated roles like validators and L2 sequencers when engaging regulators.
Explain why certain actors should not be regulated and frame arguments in TradFi-understandable terms.

INSIGHT

Letter Protects Intermediary Moats

Citadel's letter is a strategic bid to preserve intermediary moats by forcing a binary regulatory choice.
Jessi Brooks warns the filing misclassifies industry asks and applies a sledgehammer where a scalpel is needed.

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Sponsor: Uniswap
Citadel has sparked uproar with a letter calling on the SEC to regulate DeFi protocols as exchanges. But the company's requests may not be totally unreasonable.

In this episode of DEX in the City, hosts Jessi Brooks, Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, and Vy Le dig into Citadel's controversial letter and how it is a reminder that “crypto is a bubble.”

They also discuss how the CFTC and SEC are in a “race to the top,” plus Jessi explains how AI agents can exploit smart contracts they haven’t been trained on for just $1 apiece.

Plus, Vy calls on the crypto community to support Samourai developers.

Hosts:

Jessi Brooks, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital
Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, General Counsel at StarkWare
TuongVy Le, General Counsel at Veda

Links:

Unchained:

Samourai pardon petition

Timestamps:

🚀 00:00 Introduction

💡 3:05 What Citadel's SEC letter on tokenized securities and DeFi says about how TradFi views crypto

👀 6:50 Why Vy says Citadel's suggestions are not unreasonable

🤔 9:31 Is Citadel shooting itself in the foot?

❌️ 11:13 What Jessi says Citadel got wrong

📍 13:42 How crypto is a bubble (or a cult?), but Citadel’s position is more mainstream

🧠 19:39 Why the CFTC greenlighting spot crypto trading on regulated exchanges matters

💡 22:57 Katherine explains Bitnomial’s advantage

💥 26:53 Why Jessi says the CFTC and SEC are in a race to regulate crypto

🧏‍♀️ 31:30 Why KK loves the CFTC’s tokenized collateral pilot

🧠 33:47 Why Anthropic's study on smart contract security is so scary for crypto

⚠️ 36:31 How AI agents could exploit 1,000 smart contracts for $1 apiece

📝 41:42 How community members can support Samourai wallet developers

💫 44:00 Crypto good news shoutout for the week

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