Bitcoin Companies Demand AI Access to Defend Against Rising Cybersecurity Threats

Over 40 cryptocurrency companies have signed an open letter to frontier AI laboratories requesting access to their most capable models. The coalition, coordinated by the Bitcoin Policy Institute, wants vetted Bitcoin security researchers to have controlled access to these models. The signatories include major players like Coinbase, Block, and Kraken, as well as infrastructure firms securing over $1 trillion in value.

The letter argues that publicly available AI systems impose safety restrictions that block legitimate cybersecurity research. Open-source maintainers are forced to rely on weaker open-weight models while sophisticated attackers face no comparable constraints.

The coalition is not calling for unrestricted public access, but rather a 'standing trusted-access program' for qualified defenders of open-source financial infrastructure. This would involve passing a vetting process before receiving restricted capabilities.

Rising incident counts have sharpened the urgency of the request, with 182 blockchain security incidents reported in the first half of 2026, resulting in approximately $956 million in losses. This represents a roughly 50% increase in frequency compared to the same period last year.