Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Says AI Will Favor Defenders Over Attackers in Cybersecurity

Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) CEO Brian Armstrong said artificial intelligence (AI) will strengthen cybersecurity by enabling defenders to detect vulnerabilities across entire codebases before software is released.

AI Boosts Code Security

On Tuesday, in a post on X, Armstrong wrote, "AI will actually make software more secure, not less."

He argued that AI favors security teams because it allows automated scanning of all code before production.

"It favors defenders over attackers, since they can scan all code before production," he said.

AI will actually make software more secure, not less.

It favors defenders over attackers, since they can scan all code before production.

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) June 30, 2026

AI Cybersecurity Race Intensifies

Earlier, OpenAI expanded its Daybreak cybersecurity initiative with new tools, including a Codex Security plugin and GPT-5.5-Cyber for vetted defenders, aimed at speeding up vulnerability detection and patching.

The company said its AI systems have already helped identify and fix critical security flaws and that the key challenge has shifted from finding bugs to fixing them quickly.

Box Inc. (NYSE:BOX) CEO Aaron Levie warned that advanced AI cybersecurity models would soon become widely accessible, arguing that restricting AI releases could weaken U.S. competitiveness and would not prevent global access to powerful systems.

Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) CEO Nikesh Arora said AI is rapidly increasing the speed of vulnerability discovery across software systems, compressing detection timelines from years to months and placing greater pressure on security teams to manage a rising volume of patches.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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