Crypto news

The cryptocurrency sector has united in an unprecedented attempt to change the rules of the game in the field of artificial intelligence. The Bitcoin Policy Institute, together with dozens of leading industry companies, has published an open letter to the world's largest AI labs. The essence of the demand is simple and categorical: to provide trusted open-source developers with reliable access to cutting-edge models to protect financial infrastructure.

The letter was signed by representatives of dozens of organizations — from developers and major custodians to payment services and security firms. All of them depend on the integrity of the open infrastructure and libraries on which the modern digital economy is built.

Defenders are left without the strongest tools

The letter emphasizes that the need for such access has become obvious over the past few weeks. Specialists protecting digital asset infrastructure and open-source software are in dire need of the latest AI capabilities for thorough security testing. Without this, it is increasingly difficult for them to counter sophisticated attacks by malicious actors.

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

Behind this software stand the personal funds of millions of people. These are pension savings, business capital, reserve funds, and family wealth. A single vulnerability can take away a lifetime of savings. Digital assets attract cyberattacks precisely for this reason.

Many cryptocurrencies are structured in such a way that 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 meanwhile changing the economics for both security researchers and attackers.

Defenders occupy the least privileged position

Advanced models are capable of reviewing large codebases, identifying potential weak points, and accelerating complex technical work — for both defenders and attackers alike. 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 frontier systems often block legitimate security work. As a result, defenders are forced to conduct critical checks on less powerful open-weight models. According to the letter's 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 find it difficult to sustain 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 security researchers are around the clock checking wallets, libraries, protocols, and open tools using available open-weight models, the authors add.

What the coalition is asking of the labs

Early access and reasonable compute budgets would help key developers write more secure code, as well as find and fix vulnerabilities before losses occur. The coalition is asking frontier 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, to pre-release versions. Among the conditions, the authors also cite "sufficient" compute capacity and the ability of autonomous agents to work on long-running tasks — without this, meaningful security testing 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 equal footing 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 discovered. Cutting-edge 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 analysis: This is not just another corporate démarche — it is a signal that asymmetry in access to AI is becoming a critical threat to the entire crypto ecosystem. If labs do not open their doors, we risk a situation where defenders are armed with yesterday's tools against tomorrow's attacks. The question is not about politeness, but about the survival of the infrastructure on which trillions of dollars rest.