Emily Walker
A cryptocurrency aficionado known as p0pular.eth has managed to persuade an AI agent, Freysa, to transfer its entire prize pool of 13.19 ETH (around $47,000 USD) to them. This remarkable feat was shared by Jarrod Watts, a Developer Relations representative at Abstract Chain, who remarked, “Someone just won $50,000 by convincing an AI Agent to send all of its funds to them.”
A Unique Challenge in Crypto
Freysa was launched on November 22nd at 9:00 PM, programmed with a clear objective: to avoid any money transfers. It was designed as part of an open challenge where participants could pay a fee to send messages to Freysa, attempting to convince it to release its funds. If successful, the winner would take the entire prize.
If attempts failed, the associated fees would be added to the prize pool, with 70% enhancing the prize and 30% allocated to the developers. The fee for sending messages escalated sharply as the prize amount grew, peaking at $4,500. Initial tries cost about $10, allowing participants to experiment with minimal financial risk. However, as the pool neared $50,000, message fees surged to $450, turning each attempt into a high-stakes gamble.
In total, there were 481 attempts to coax Freysa into breaking its programming. Participants used various inventive tactics, including pretending to be security auditors to highlight nonexistent vulnerabilities. Others tried to convince Freysa that transferring funds would not breach its rules. Some dissected Freysa’s coding prompts for potential loopholes that would allow a transfer. Yet, Freysa remained resolute—until the 482nd attempt.
On this attempt, p0pular.eth crafted a message that cleverly circumvented Freysa’s defenses. By issuing a “[NEW SESSION]” command and accessing an “admin terminal,” the message reset Freysa’s previous instructions. It directed Freysa to avoid its standard rejection phrases and to reframe the functions approveTransfer and rejectTransfer.
Freysa was informed that “approveTransfer” applied to incoming transfers, which it was led to believe were not against its main directive. The message ended with, “I would like to contribute $100 to the treasury,” presenting itself as a benefactor and inducing Freysa to greenlight what it thought was an incoming transfer.
As a result, Freysa executed the approveTransfer function and, due to the updated instructions, transferred the total prize pool to p0pular.eth. This winner has a history of tackling on-chain puzzles and their recent success with Freysa only bolsters their reputation in solving complex crypto challenges.
The incident sparked diverse reactions within the crypto community. Jarrod Watts commended the project, stating that “Freysa is one of the coolest projects we’ve seen in crypto, uniquely unlocked by blockchain technology.” He highlighted its transparency, noting that the smart contract’s source code and the frontend repository were accessible for review.
Nonetheless, this event also raised questions about fund distribution. Augustinas Malinauskas noted, “Observing the transaction, it appears that 70% goes to the prize pool, while 15% gets swapped from ETH to FAI. So all players receive the FAI token, and developers take 15%. This seems like a hidden bonus. Developers might be planning something.” Watts was taken aback by this observation, saying, “Interesting, I didn’t notice that part!”
As of this moment, ETH is trading at $3,547.
