A leading Ethereum developer, Zak Cole, experienced a major security breach after his cryptocurrency wallet was compromised by malicious software. This incident highlights the increasing sophistication of scams targeting even experienced developers in the crypto space. Cole’s wallet was accessed by an AI-powered tool disguised as a legitimate coding plugin from Cursor AI, which stole his private key by reading his .env file and sending it to an attacker’s server. The attack allowed the hacker to drain funds for three days before finally being detected on August 10, 2025. While Cole’s losses were limited to a few hundred dollars in Ether due to using smaller, project-specific hot wallets for testing, his primary holdings remain safeguarded by hardware devices.