US Treasury summons bank chiefs as Anthropic’s new AI raises cybersecurity alarms
The U.S. Treasury convened top bank executives this week to assess cyber risks tied to Anthropic’s newly revealed AI system, Claude Mythos — a meeting that underscores growing government concern about how advanced models could threaten financial stability and sensitive infrastructure.
What happened
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly hosted senior bank leaders at the department’s Washington headquarters. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell also was said to be present.
- The gathering follows Anthropic’s unveiling of the Mythos model and a code leak earlier this month that intensified worries. Anthropic has warned that advanced AI systems now “surpass all but the most skilled humans at finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities,” calling the potential consequences for economies, public safety and national security “severe.”
Who attended
- Invitations went mainly to CEOs of systemically important banks — institutions regulators deem critical to overall financial stability. Reported attendees included David Solomon (Goldman Sachs), Brian Moynihan (Bank of America), Jane Fraser (Citigroup), Ted Pick (Morgan Stanley) and Charlie Scharf (Wells Fargo). JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon was invited but did not attend.
- Dimon recently warned in his annual shareholder letter that cybersecurity “remains one of our biggest risks,” and that artificial intelligence “will almost surely make this risk worse.”
What Anthropic found and how it responded
- Anthropic says Mythos has already identified thousands of software vulnerabilities across widely used applications — some dating back as far as 27 years and previously undetected by developers or security tools.
- In response, the company has restricted access to Mythos to a select group of partners — including Amazon, Apple and Microsoft — marking the first time Anthropic limited a product rollout. Infrastructure and tech firms such as Cisco, Broadcom and the Linux Foundation have also been granted access.
Regulatory backdrop and legal dispute
- The Treasury meeting comes amid heightened scrutiny: the U.S. government recently designated Anthropic as a potential supply chain risk, a classification the company is contesting in court.
Anthropic’s rapid commercial growth
- Despite regulatory pressure, Anthropic reports extraordinary commercial momentum. In an April 6 blog post the company said its annualized revenue run rate exceeded $30 billion as of early April 2026 — more than triple the roughly $9 billion reported at the end of 2025.
- Growth drivers include new compute partnerships with Google and Broadcom that secure multi-gigawatt TPU capacity to power frontier Claude models through 2027, and an agentic coding product, Claude Code, which has generated more than $2.5 billion in run-rate revenue as of February. Weekly active users on Anthropic’s platform have doubled since the start of the year.
Why crypto markets should care
- Advanced AI that can unearth long-hidden vulnerabilities poses particular risks to crypto infrastructure: exchanges, custodial services, key-management systems, smart-contract tooling and encryption protocols could become targets if attackers weaponize these capabilities.
- For crypto firms and regulators alike, the meeting signals that traditional financial supervisors are preparing for AI-driven threat scenarios that could ripple through capital markets — and into digital-asset ecosystems — if not managed proactively.
What to watch next
- How regulators translate these concerns into guidance or rules for both banks and critical tech/service providers.
- Which additional firms receive Mythos access and how Anthropic and partners manage disclosure, patching and responsible use.
- Potential legal developments as Anthropic challenges the supply-chain designation.
Bottom line: The intersection of frontier AI and financial infrastructure is now squarely on policymakers’ radar. For crypto businesses — where keys, wallets and smart contracts depend on robust security — the Anthropic Mythos episode is a timely reminder that new technology can both accelerate innovation and elevate systemic cyber risk.
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