Chinese AI Models Drive 440% Jump in Blockchain-Hosted Malware Commands

Attackers are posting malware instructions to blockchains 440% more often since unrestricted Chinese open-source AI models arrived, Chainalysis reported. Daily malicious on-chain writes climbed from 2.06 to 11.1 in under a year.

Chainalysis calls the technique blockchain dead drops (BDDs). State-linked operators from North Korea and Iran now generate most of the activity, the firm found.

Censorship Resistance Turns Into a Hacking Asset In its latest report, Chainalysis noted that hackers stored malicious code on centralized servers that could get seized, blocked, or pulled offline. However, now attackers store them on public blockchains.

“We call this technique ‘blockchain dead drops’ (BDD). BDDs store payloads in on-chain transactions and smart contracts where infected devices can retrieve them on demand.