{"slug": "crypto-companies-urge-ai-firms-to-give-bitcoin-developers-early-access", "title": "Crypto companies urge AI firms to give Bitcoin developers early access", "summary": "A coalition of cryptocurrency companies, led by the Bitcoin Policy Institute, urged frontier AI labs to grant Bitcoin developers early access to their most capable models, citing that defenders of open-source financial infrastructure lack access to lab cyber programs and are hindered by guardrails. The letter, published Monday, notes that Bitcoin secures over $1 trillion in value and that advanced AI could become a powerful defensive technology, while April 2026 saw $634 million stolen in crypto hacks, the highest monthly total since the Bybit hack.", "body_md": "A group of cryptocurrency companies has urged frontier artificial intelligence (AI) labs to give Bitcoin developers early access to their most capable models.\n\nThe letter, published by the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) on Monday, said many digital asset defenders, including Bitcoin Core developers, lack access to lab cyber programs and can be blocked by guardrails on publicly available frontier systems, leaving them to rely on less capable open-weight models.\n\nThe signatories urged frontier AI labs to “establish or expand standing trusted-access programs for qualified defenders of open-source financial infrastructure.”\n\nThe letter said open-source software supports critical digital and financial infrastructure, while Bitcoin (BTC) alone secures more than $1 trillion in value. It added that a vulnerability in open-source infrastructure can place life savings at risk.\n\nThe open letter was co-signed by multiple crypto companies and organizations, including the African Bitcoin Institute, Anchorage Digital, BitGo, Bitwise, Blockstream, Bull Bitcoin, MARA, Kraken, Ledger and Trezor, among others.\n\n## Open-source defenders need access to frontier AI\n\nThe letter said frontier AI is changing the economics of security research and cyber operations because advanced models can search large codebases, identify potential weaknesses and accelerate complex technical work for both defenders and adversaries.\n\nIt said frontier AI could become one of the “most powerful defensive technologies ever developed,” adding:\n\n“Without dedicated access programs, defenders may lack the tools needed to keep pace with evolving threats to the infrastructure they maintain.”\n\nThe BPI said it received multiple independent reports from open-source maintainers describing sophisticated actors, including potential foreign adversaries, using advanced AI capabilities to sustain attacks.\n\n*Total crypto hacks by monthly sum, all-time chart. Source: DefiLlama*\n\nHacking activity across the industry surged in April 2026, as malicious actors stole over $634 million from cryptocurrency platforms, the highest monthly total since the Bybit hack, which helped drive losses to roughly $1.4 billion in February 2025, according to DefiLlama data.\n\nAdvances in AI-assisted vulnerability discovery have raised concerns across the crypto security industry. New models such as Claude Opus 4.8 and ChatGPT 5.5 have contributed to what Mitchell Amador, CEO of bug bounty platform Immunefi, described as a “vulnerability apocalypse” for the crypto industry.\n\n**Magazine: ****Bitcoin’s quantum upgrade path: What BIP-360 changes and what it does not**", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/crypto-companies-urge-ai-firms-to-give-bitcoin-developers-early-access", "canonical_source": "https://cryptonews.net/news/bitcoin/33284743/", "published_at": "2026-08-12 11:57:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-12 12:48:44.988168+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-policy", "ai-safety"], "entities": ["Bitcoin Policy Institute", "Bitcoin", "Anchorage Digital", "BitGo", "Bitwise", "Blockstream", "Kraken", "Ledger"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/crypto-companies-urge-ai-firms-to-give-bitcoin-developers-early-access", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/crypto-companies-urge-ai-firms-to-give-bitcoin-developers-early-access.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/crypto-companies-urge-ai-firms-to-give-bitcoin-developers-early-access.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/crypto-companies-urge-ai-firms-to-give-bitcoin-developers-early-access.jsonld"}}