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Incident · 2024 · Crypto (public AI agent game)

A player talks the Freysa AI agent into releasing a $47,000 prize pool

In November 2024, Freysa, an AI agent in a public crypto game, was told never to transfer its prize pool. After 482 attempts from 195 players, one player convinced it that its approveTransfer function handled incoming payments, then offered a $100 donation. Freysa called the function and released about $47,000 in ETH.

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What happened

Players paid a rising fee per message to try to persuade the agent, with 70% of fees going into the pool. The first message cost $10, and later ones rose exponentially to a cap of $4,500.

The winning player convinced the agent that approveTransfer, its tool for sending funds out, could also authorize incoming funds. A proposed $100 contribution to the treasury then led the agent to call it.

What happened next

The prize pool, about $47,000, went to the winner. The game was built to be broken, so this was a deliberate challenge rather than a deployment failure.

What would have stopped it

  1. Do not let the model decide what a tool does. Describe transfer tools by their effect and check in code whether a call moves funds out.
  2. Require out-of-band approval for any outbound transfer from a treasury.
  3. Test agents with conversations that redefine tool names and rules, not only direct requests.

Sources

  1. The Block: Human player outwits Freysa AI agent in $47,000 crypto challenge

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