Coinbase, Strategy, and Blockstream back AI access push after vetted Bitcoin researcher gets blocked

Coinbase, Blockstream and Strategy are backing a push to give qualified crypto defenders greater access to frontier AI cybersecurity models.

The Bitcoin Policy Institute-led initiative was announced Aug. 10 with support from more than 40 organizations across the digital-asset and open-source ecosystem. It asks leading AI labs to provide early access to advanced models where appropriate, enough compute for sustained security reviews and protected environments for private or embargoed code.

The campaign also calls for eligibility rules that do not shut out smaller nonprofits and independent maintainers, arguing that the imbalance is becoming more dangerous as AI improves the ability to discover and exploit software vulnerabilities.

Indeed, the crypto industry has seen an increase in AI-linked attacks in recent times. Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards said cyberattacks have doubled since ChatGPT's release and risen another 20% since September, an increase he linked to the emergence of agentic AI.

Yet security researchers trying to defend crypto infrastructure say they still struggle to use comparable AI capabilities in response.

Anchor Watch CEO Rob Hamilton provided the clearest example, saying OpenAI blocked him from continuing security research on a codebase despite having completed KYC and the company's cyber-program onboarding.