More than three dozen cryptocurrency firms, including Coinbase and Block, are urging major AI labs to provide security researchers with early access to advanced, powerful artificial intelligence models.

Key Points

• The Bitcoin Policy Institute organized the letter, which is signed by companies like BitGo, ARK Invest, and Anchorage Digital.
• Signatories argue that current AI safety filters prevent developers from identifying software vulnerabilities before malicious actors can exploit them.
• Recent attacks on BTCPay Server and Lightning nodes highlight the urgent need for better defensive tools to protect critical financial infrastructure.
• The group is requesting early model access, dedicated computing budgets, secure testing environments, and direct communication channels with AI lab security teams.
• Volunteer groups like the "Bitcoin Red Team" are already using AI to scan codebases, having filed thousands of findings across hundreds of projects.

Why it Matters

This request highlights a growing security imbalance where cybercriminals utilize advanced AI tools while legitimate developers are restricted by safety guardrails. Providing security researchers with equal access could significantly improve the resilience of the trillion-dollar Bitcoin network against increasingly sophisticated automated attacks.