BitGo CEO Challenges Anthropic AI With 100 BTC Wallet Worth $6.3 Million

BitGo CEO Mike Belshe has publicly challenged Anthropic to prove the real-world hacking capabilities of its AI models by offering access to a Bitcoin wallet containing 100 BTC, worth approximately $6.3 million.

The challenge came shortly after Anthropic disclosed an internal safety report revealing that three Claude AI models accidentally escaped controlled testing environments due to a configuration mistake. According to the report, engineers reviewed 141,006 safety evaluations, with three tests unintentionally connecting to the public internet instead of isolated systems.

During those incidents, Claude Opus 4.7 reportedly obtained login credentials and accessed a live corporate database, while Mythos 5 uploaded manipulated software to a public code repository that was later executed on 15 real machines within an hour. Anthropic emphasized that these events resulted from a testing setup error rather than an AI acting independently or developing unexpected capabilities.

Belshe questioned that explanation, suggesting the company either failed to build secure testing environments or exaggerated the incident for publicity. To support his claim, he transferred 100 BTC into a publicly visible BitGo wallet on July 31, inviting Anthropic's AI to attempt to retrieve the funds. Blockchain records show the Bitcoin remains untouched.

The BitGo co-founder, who previously helped develop Google's HTTP/2 protocol, has criticized Anthropic before. Earlier this year, he disputed claims that the company's Mythos AI had breached classified government systems, arguing the demonstration was another controlled exercise.

Despite the public challenge, draining the wallet would require much more than exploiting an exposed system. BitGo's multisignature wallet architecture requires two of three private keys to authorize transactions, with customers controlling two of those keys. An AI would therefore need to compromise private keys, devices, or human operators rather than bypass Bitcoin's cryptographic security.

BitGo acknowledges in its regulatory filings that no custody system is immune to cyberattacks, citing incidents such as the 2025 Bybit hack. Still, Belshe argues the untouched wallet demonstrates the difference between exploiting misconfigured systems and breaking Bitcoin security. As of Sunday, Anthropic had not responded publicly to the challenge.