Hackers can steal money from a trading platform by compromising a third-party app or service
Hackers can steal money from a trading platform by compromising a third-party app or service that the platform trusts. They don't necessarily need to break directly into the exchange's main servers.
And you're asking an important technical question: Could hackers use an AI tool, website plugin, or another connected app to get into Binance or Polymarket?
Yes, that's technically possible. But there are several different ways an attack like this can happen.
How hackers can enter through a third-party service
For example, if an exchange uses an outside analytics tool, the attacker might compromise that tool. When customers visit the real exchange website, their browsers could unknowingly load malicious JavaScript.
That malicious code might exploit an authenticated session or trick the user into approving a transaction.
The important distinction is that compromising a customer's browser is different from compromising the exchange's central wallet infrastructure.
What investigators found in the actual attacks
Polymarket: Your third-party theory is correct
Polymarket confirmed that its website loaded a compromised performance-monitoring script. Researchers identified the vendor as DebugBear.
The attacker replaced the trusted script with malicious code. Users who had Polymarket open during the attack could have their existing trading sessions abused to sell positions and transfer funds.
So users did not necessarily have to click a fake link or install anything themselves.
Binance: A different type of attack
The October 29 Binance theft appears to have involved its hot-wallet transaction-signing infrastructure, rather than a malicious website script.
According to blockchain investigation firm TRM Labs, the attackers managed to get valid transactions signed across multiple blockchains, moving approximately $6.36 billion.
One report also describes a possibly compromised engineer's laptop, but Binance has not published a definitive root cause.
Could an AI tool be the entry point?
Absolutely possible in principle. For example, a malicious AI coding assistant, compromised software dependency, or browser extension could expose credentials or introduce harmful code into a company's systems.
But there is currently no verified evidence that an AI tool caused either of these two attacks.
The key difference is:
Polymarket: Compromised third-party website code abused customer sessions.
Binance: Investigators suspect attackers gained access to infrastructure authorized to sign cryptocurrency transfers.
What makes the Binance case especially interesting is that the attacker apparently didn't need to crack blockchain cryptography. They may have compromised the system that was already trusted to authorize transfers.
That is why protecting signing keys, employee devices, software suppliers, and transaction-approval systems is so important.
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