Crypto news

The Bitcoin Policy Institute, joining forces with dozens of key players in the crypto industry, has issued an open letter to the world's leading AI labs. The coalition insists on providing trusted open-source developers with reliable access to cutting-edge artificial intelligence models to protect financial infrastructure.

This move is not merely a request but a systemic response to the growing imbalance of power in cyberspace. Dozens of organizations have signed the letter—from developers and major custodians to payment services and security firms. Their businesses directly depend on the integrity of the open infrastructure and libraries that have become the foundation of the entire digital economy.

Defenders Are Left Without the Strongest Tools

The letter emphasizes that the need for such access has become evident over the past few weeks. Security specialists for digital assets and open-source software are facing unprecedented pressure: they need the latest AI capabilities to thoroughly audit code for vulnerabilities. Without this, they simply cannot keep up with increasingly sophisticated attacks from malicious actors.

Open source has long become financial infrastructure. According to the authors' estimates, the Bitcoin network alone safeguards assets worth over a trillion dollars. And across the entire ecosystem—from wallets and cryptographic libraries to node software, custodial systems, exchanges, and payment networks—we are talking about 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. A single vulnerability can wipe out a lifetime of savings, which is why digital assets attract cyberattacks.

Many cryptocurrencies are designed in such a way that the path from a hack to losing money is short. In such conditions, it is critical to find and close vulnerabilities in advance. Cutting-edge AI changes the economics for both security researchers and attackers alike.

Defenders Occupy the Least Privileged Position

Advanced models are capable of analyzing vast codebases, finding weak points, and accelerating complex technical work—both for defense and attack. The authors expect these capabilities to spread through public open-source models, unauthorized access to corporate systems, and specialized tools for cyberattacks.

Today, however, 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 frontier 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 authors, developers occupy the most vulnerable position in the entire security framework surrounding AI.

The Bitcoin Policy Institute received several independent reports from open-source maintainers. According to them, experienced attackers, possibly from other countries, are conducting continuous AI-assisted attacks, and small teams struggle to keep up with such a pace.

Even when systems remain protected, responding to persistent and sophisticated activity diverts scarce maintainer resources away from development and routine security work. Bitcoin developers and other 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 vulnerabilities before losses occur. The coalition asks frontier AI labs to create or expand standing 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 cite "sufficient" computing power and the ability of autonomous agents to work on long-running tasks—without which meaningful security audits cannot be conducted.

Separately, the coalition requests 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 states. The final item on the list is a direct channel for coordinated vulnerability reporting, remediation, and contact with lab security teams.

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

The letter was signed by representatives of 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 move marks an important shift—from passively observing the AI race to actively demanding a redistribution of its fruits. If the labs do not respond, we risk a world where AI-powered cyber weapons are available only to a select few, while the defense of critical infrastructure remains a secondary concern. This is not a matter of convenience but a matter of survival for the entire ecosystem.