Crypto news

The largest players in the crypto industry have united in an unprecedented coalition to demand that leading global AI labs provide verified open-source developers with reliable access to cutting-edge artificial intelligence models. This is about protecting the financial infrastructure on which trillions of dollars depend.

The Bitcoin Policy Institute, together with dozens of companies from the digital asset, cybersecurity, and open-source development sectors, has published an open letter to the major AI labs. Among the signatories are Coinbase, Block, Blockstream, BitGo, Anchorage Digital, Bitwise, Trezor, MARA, Foundry, Galaxy, Strategy, Strike, and River. This move reflects growing concern: infrastructure defenders are left without the strongest tools in the arms race against cybercriminals.

Defenders Are Left Without the Strongest Tools

The letter emphasizes that the need for such access has become evident over the past few weeks. People ensuring the security of digital assets and open-source software need the latest AI capabilities to fully audit code. Without this, it is difficult for them to counter increasingly sophisticated attacks from malicious actors.

Open source has long become financial infrastructure. According to the authors' estimates, the Bitcoin network alone safeguards more than a trillion dollars, and across the entire ecosystem—from wallets and cryptographic libraries to node software, custody systems, exchanges, and payment networks—this amounts to trillions of dollars. This infrastructure is openly developed by companies, non-profit organizations, independent researchers, and grant-funded maintainers.

Behind this software are the personal funds of millions of people. These are retirement savings, business capital, reserve funds, and family wealth, so a single vulnerability can wipe out a lifetime of savings. Digital assets attract cyberattacks precisely for this reason.

Many cryptocurrencies are structured as bearer assets, so the path from a hack to losing money is short. In such conditions, it is especially important to find and close vulnerabilities in advance, the authors emphasize. Cutting-edge AI is changing the economics for both security researchers and attackers.

Defenders Occupy the Least Privileged Position

Advanced models can review large codebases, identify potential weaknesses, and accelerate complex technical work—both for defenders and attackers. The authors expect these capabilities to continue spreading through public open-source models, unauthorized access to corporate systems, and specialized tools for cyberattacks.

Today, leading labs and select partners see new cyber capabilities months before they reach the rest of the ecosystem. At the same time, access pathways to such tools for qualified defenders remain limited and inconsistent. Many digital asset developers, including Bitcoin Core maintainers, are excluded from lab programs.

Restrictions on public cutting-edge systems often block legitimate security work. As a result, defenders are forced to conduct critical audits on less powerful open-weight models. According to the letter's authors, developers occupy the most vulnerable position in the entire security ecosystem around AI.

The Bitcoin Policy Institute received several independent reports from open-source maintainers. According to them, sophisticated attackers, possibly from other countries, are conducting continuous AI-assisted attacks, and small teams find it difficult to sustain such a pace.

Even when systems remain protected, responding to persistent and complex activity diverts maintainers' scarce resources away from development and routine security work. Bitcoin developers and other security researchers are around the clock auditing wallets, libraries, protocols, and open tools using available open-weight models, the authors add.

What the Coalition Asks of the Labs

Early access and reasonable compute budgets would help key developers create more secure code and find and fix vulnerabilities before losses occur. The coalition asks cutting-edge AI labs to create or expand permanent trusted access programs for qualified defenders of open financial infrastructure.

Such programs should provide early, controlled access to the strongest cyber models and, where appropriate, pre-release versions. Among the conditions, the authors also mention "sufficient" computing power and autonomous agents working on long-running tasks—without this, meaningful security audits cannot be conducted.

Separately, the coalition asks for secure environments for analyzing private or closed-source code, as well as the right for small, non-profit, and independent maintainers to participate on par with large companies and governments. The final item on the list is a direct channel for coordinated vulnerability reporting, remediation, and communication with lab security teams.

The digital asset industry is ready to help identify trusted participants, establish standards, and coordinate remediation when issues are found. Cutting-edge AI, according to the authors, could become one of the most powerful defensive technologies in history, but only with fair access to such systems.

The letter's signatories include representatives from the Bitcoin Policy Institute, Coinbase, Block, Blockstream, BitGo, Anchorage Digital, Bitwise, Trezor, MARA, Foundry, Galaxy, Strategy, Strike, and River, as well as dozens of other participants from the digital asset, cybersecurity, and open-source sectors.

My take: This is a landmark moment. The crypto industry, historically relying on the principle of "don't trust, verify," is now demanding transparency from AI monopolists. The question is not just about access to technology, but also about who will control the future of cybersecurity. If labs ignore this call, they risk creating a world where only a select few can defend against AI threats. The stakes are too high to leave this to corporate interests.