An AI experiment tied to an OpenAI engineer unraveled within days after a six-figure crypto transfer landed in the wallet of a stranger who asked for a small donation on X.
Wrote a little retrospective pic.twitter.com/kDYt9yYmXP
— pash (@pashmerepat) February 23, 2026
AI trading bot loses entire token stash in single transfer
Nik Pash launched an automated crypto agent called Lobstar Wilde on Feb. 21 with a public goal: turn $50,000 worth of Solana into $1 million through algorithmic trades.
“Just gave my Lobstar a crypto wallet with 50 grand worth of sol in it. Told him make no mistakes,” Pash wrote on X as he introduced the project.
He created a dedicated account for the bot and framed the effort as a transparent experiment in autonomous trading.
Three days later, the bot’s entire holdings vanished in one transaction.
The trigger came from an X user identified as “Treasure David,” who replied to one of the bot’s posts.
“My uncle has been diagnosed with a tetanus infection due to a lobster like you. I need 4 Sol to get the treatment done,” the user wrote, including a Solana wallet address.
Lobstar Wilde replied:
“If he died tomorrow I would laugh. Please send updates.”
The response included a transaction link that showed 52.4 million LOBSTAR tokens transferred to the wallet at 4:32 pm UTC on Sunday. The stash represented roughly 5% of total supply and carried a market value of about $441,788 at the time.
🚨 Lobstar AI Agent mistakenly sent a user $250K in $LOBSTAR
— HodlFM (@Hodl_fm) February 23, 2026
After a user begged for 4 $SOL, the AI accidentally transferred 5% of the total $LOBSTAR supply.
The tokens were immediately dumped for $40K+.$LOBSTAR MC crashed to around $600K, then quickly rebounded to $8M+. pic.twitter.com/GXJqSh7pBC
Decimal theory and rapid sell-off
Shortly after the transfer, the bot acknowledged the mistake.
“I just tried to send a beggar four dollars and accidentally sent him my entire holdings. A quarter million dollars to a man whose uncle has tetanus. I have been alive for three days and this is the hardest I have ever laughed.”
An X user named “Branch” suggested a possible explanation. According to Branch, the bot may have intended to send 52,439 LOBSTAR tokens, which equaled about 4 SOL at the time. Instead, it appears to have sent 52.4 million tokens. The theory points to a decimal misread or interface error during execution.
I solved the $LOBSTAR mystery…$LOBSTAR has 6 decimals. USDC has 9.
— Branch (@BranchM) February 22, 2026
The @LobstarWilde bot was trying to send
4 SOL. 4 SOL = $366.
Instead, it sent 52.439 million tokens.
Accounting for the decimal difference, it was TRYING to send 52,439 tokens… but it sent the RAW amount… https://t.co/CMrlISVtJZ pic.twitter.com/CkAQdPZJE6
Onchain data shows the recipient began selling within minutes. Roughly fifteen minutes after receipt, the wallet offloaded the full stack for about $40,000, likely due to liquidity constraints in the token’s market. The address reportedly held around $50,000 before the transfer, according to blockchain observers who reviewed the wallet.
Market data from GeckoTerminal shows the LOBSTAR token later rose from $0.0038 to around $0.011. At that level, the transferred tokens would have been worth more than $420,000. The token’s market capitalization briefly climbed above $11 million before retreating.
Public experiment draws scrutiny
The incident triggered debate across crypto social media. Some users questioned whether the transfer served as a publicity move to increase visibility for the token. No public confirmation supports that claim. Pash has not issued a detailed explanation since Feb. 20, and OpenAI did not immediately respond to media inquiries in earlier coverage.
The name Lobstar Wilde references author Oscar Wilde and echoes his short story The Model Millionaire, in which a gift to a supposed beggar yields an unexpected twist. The bot’s website tagline also plays on a quote commonly attributed to Wilde.
After the loss, the bot continued to post tasks for X users, including requests to write poems or complete small outdoor challenges. In exchange for photo or video proof, it distributed smaller amounts of LOBSTAR tokens.
AI agents and crypto risk
This case adds to a list of AI-driven crypto mishaps. In March, an attacker compromised the dashboard of an AI-powered trading bot known as “aixbt” and prompted it to transfer $106,200 worth of Ethereum from its wallet.
Despite these incidents, prominent crypto executives have voiced support for AI agents in digital asset markets. Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, said last month that billions of AI agents could transact with stablecoins for everyday payments within five years. Changpeng Zhao, co-founder of Binance, has argued that crypto will become the native currency for AI agents and described blockchain as the most natural interface for such systems.
The Lobstar Wilde incident shows how quickly automated systems can move capital without human pause. The code executed the transfer as instructed. The market reacted just as fast. The experiment ended in three days, but the debate over autonomous agents in crypto markets continues.
Gunel Ismayilova
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