Crypto news

The Bitcoin Policy Institute, together with dozens of companies in the crypto industry, has sent an open letter to the world's largest AI labs. The coalition insists on providing verified open-source developers with reliable access to advanced artificial intelligence models to protect the financial ecosystem.

Dozens of organizations working in digital assets, cybersecurity, and open-source software have signed the letter. Among them are wallet developers, major custodians, payment services, and security firms whose business directly depends on the integrity of open infrastructure and cryptographic libraries.

Infrastructure defenders are left without the strongest tools

The letter emphasizes that the need for such access has become evident over the past few weeks. Specialists ensuring the security of digital assets urgently need the latest AI capabilities for thorough code audits. Without this, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to counter sophisticated cyberattacks.

Open source has long become financial infrastructure. By my estimates, the Bitcoin network alone safeguards assets worth over a trillion dollars, while the entire digital currency ecosystem—from wallets and crypto libraries to nodes, exchanges, and payment networks—manages 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: retirement savings, business capital, reserve funds, and family wealth. A single vulnerability can deprive people of their life savings. This is precisely why digital assets are so attractive to cyberattackers.

Cryptocurrencies are designed in such a way that the path from a hack to the loss of funds is extremely short. Under such conditions, it is critically important to find and fix vulnerabilities at early stages. Advanced AI is changing the economics for both security researchers and attackers.

Defenders occupy the least privileged position

Advanced models are capable of analyzing massive codebases, identifying weaknesses, and accelerating complex technical work. However, these capabilities are rapidly spreading through public open-source models, unauthorized access to corporate systems, and specialized cyberattack tools. At the same time, access paths to such tools for qualified defenders remain limited and inconsistent. Many digital asset developers, including Bitcoin Core maintainers, are denied access to lab programs.

Restrictions on public advanced systems often block legitimate security work. As a result, defenders are forced to conduct critical checks on less powerful open-weight models. Developers occupy the most vulnerable position in the entire security framework surrounding AI.

Open-source maintainers are reporting continuous AI-assisted attacks. Experienced attackers, possibly from other countries, are applying constant pressure, and small teams find it difficult to sustain such a pace. Even when systems remain protected, responding to sophisticated activity diverts scarce resources away from development and routine security work.

What the coalition demands from the labs

Early access and reasonable compute budgets would allow key developers to write more secure code and find vulnerabilities before losses occur. The coalition asks advanced 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. Sufficient computing power and the ability to run autonomous agents over long tasks are also necessary—without this, meaningful security checks cannot be conducted.

Separately, the coalition requests secure environments for analyzing private or closed-source code, as well as admitting small, non-profit, and independent maintainer teams on par with large corporations and governments. A crucial point is direct communication channels with lab security teams for coordinated vulnerability disclosure and remediation.

The digital asset industry is ready to help identify trusted participants, establish standards, and coordinate remediation efforts. Advanced AI 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 verdict: This is a landmark moment. While AI labs are focused on commercialization and protecting their models, they are overlooking a critical imbalance: cybercriminals are already actively arming themselves with advanced AI, while defenders are left with outdated tools. If labs do not open up access, the consequences for the entire crypto infrastructure could be catastrophic.