AI cybersecurity startup Octane has raised $6.75m in its seed funding round to enhance blockchain security through AI.

The round was led jointly by Archetype and Winklevoss Capital, with participation from Gemini, Circle, Legion Capital, Druid Ventures, Duke Capital Partners, and strategic angels including Balaji Srinivasan and Sina Habibian.

The newly secured funding will be used to accelerate product development, grow the team, expand the labelling of vulnerability data, and drive adoption of the platform among developers building in the crypto ecosystem.

Octane CEO Giovanni Vignone said: “Flawed blockchain code enables billions in theft across crypto, with vulnerable smart contracts creating an ever-expanding attack surface as more value enters the ecosystem.

“Octane’s AI continuously scans codebases, empowering developers with proactive threat detection and one-click fixes throughout the entire development lifecycle—eliminating vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them.”

Octane applies machine learning techniques to detect and address vulnerabilities in blockchain codebases.

The company provides developers with tools that enable proactive threat detection and one-click bug fixes across the software development lifecycle.

These tools are designed to identify bugs before deployment and during ongoing development, aiming to close security gaps in the decentralised finance space.

With cryptocurrency-related hacks exceeding $11bn, according to DefiLlama, Octane’s focus on secure smart contract development responds to a growing industry concern.

The platform continuously scans on-chain smart contracts and is set to expand its capabilities to include off-chain codebases in the near future.

Archetype general partner Ash Egan said: “We’re thrilled to back Gio and the team at Octane as they develop a powerful new method of mitigating hacks, crypto’s most critical vulnerability.

“By leveraging LLMs to identify attack surfaces before deployment, we believe Octane expands the crypto security purview beyond traditional audits and does so with a developer-first mentality. The Archetype team is ecstatic to lead Octane’s $6.75m seed round and help evolve crypto security alongside the technology and asset class.”