The trillion-dollar dilemma: why big banks hesitate in front of blockchain

In recent years, the world of traditional finance has begun to look with increasing interest at blockchain and its potential.According to Ronghui Gu, CEO of the blockchain security company CertiK, financial institutions are considering the possibility of transferring trillions of dollars in assets onchain. The time horizon for this migration could be around ten years, a period within which tens of trillions of dollars are expected to move on decentralized ledgers.

This prospect represents a real revolution for the financial sector, which could benefit from greater efficiency and transparency. However, the current operational reality is much more complex and risky than one might imagine, especially for the more conservative players in the financial landscape.

The risks of blockchain: a barrier for banks

Despite the enthusiasm, the transfer of assets onto blockchain faces a series of significant obstacles. The main one is the risk of hacks and exploits, a threat that has intensified with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) applied to cybercrime.

Ronghui Gu emphasizes how banks and financial institutions are forced to deal with a multitude of risks: from AI-powered automated attacks, to smart contract vulnerabilities, to oracle manipulations and cross-chain hacks that hit the bridges between different blockchains. These risks, according to Gu, are the main obstacle preventing traditional finance from transferring its assets onchain on a large scale.

A growing landscape of attacks

The concerns of institutions are not unfounded. Data collected by CertiK show that the number of attacks is constantly increasing. April was the worst month of the last four years, with almost daily attacks and only three days without incidents. This sudden increase, according to Gu, is made possible precisely by the use of AI by hackers.

Among the most striking cases of recent months are the attacks suffered by Drift Protocol and Kelp Dao, two crypto lending pools that were targeted by North Korean cybercriminals. In these two exploits, nearly 600 million dollars were stolen. Another significant episode is the one that hit Bybit in February 2025, with a record loss of 1.46 billion dollars, the largest attack ever recorded to date.

According to data from DefiLlama, over the last year more than 1.1 billion dollars have been lost due to DeFi attacks, highlighting how vulnerabilities in cross-chain infrastructures can quickly spread throughout the entire ecosystem.

An unfair game: hackers’ resources versus defenders’ limits

The main problem, according to Gu, is that the current system favors malicious actors. Hackers have practically unlimited resources and can focus their efforts on protocols with a massive total value locked (TVL), that is, those that manage the largest amounts of assets and therefore offer the highest returns in case of success.

A single attacker can invest between 10,000 and 20,000 dollars in computing tokens to keep automated vulnerability scanning engines running, operating non-stop for days or weeks. By contrast, protocol defense teams are constrained by limited budgets and must operate within the limits imposed by commercial contracts with clients.

Gu explains that CertiK, which has 5,000 clients, must respect the budgets set for each project, investing human and technological resources only within those limits. This creates a structural gap: while hackers can work without limits of time or resources, defenders often have to restrict themselves to just a few hours of code scanning and review.

The effect of AI: faster and more efficient attacks

The introduction of artificial intelligence has made exploits even faster and more efficient. Attacks have become almost daily, and the trend observed in April could continue until the end of the year. AI allows hackers to automate the search for vulnerabilities, making it increasingly difficult for human and technological defenses to keep up.

This scenario of persistent operational failure highlights the need for a radical change in the approach to blockchain security, especially if traditional finance truly intends to transfer assets of such high value.

The future of blockchain between risks and opportunities

The migration of assets onchain represents one of the greatest opportunities for the financial sector, but also one of the most complex challenges. Banks and financial institutions are aware of the potential benefits of blockchain, but they cannot ignore the growing risks linked to hacks and AI-powered exploits.

To overcome this dilemma, it will be necessary to invest in new security solutions capable of bridging the gap between the resources of hackers and those of defenders. Only in this way will it be possible to turn blockchain into a truly secure and reliable tool for large-scale asset management.

While awaiting these developments, traditional finance remains on the sidelines, closely observing technological progress and sector evolutions, aware that the stakes are extremely high: it is, literally, a trillion-dollar dilemma.