BlackRock, Coinbase, Strategy and six other finance and crypto firms have formed the Bitcoin Security Consortium, committing a combined $15 million over three years to back Bitcoin security research and open-source development centered on quantum-computing defense, according to Decrypt’s Morning Minute newsletter.
The group’s members are BlackRock, Coinbase, Strategy, Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, Block, Blockstream, Fidelity Digital Assets and Galaxy. Decrypt said the consortium itself will not hold or allocate the money. Instead, each member will decide which developers and researchers to fund directly. The group also said it will not steer Bitcoin development or take positions on protocol changes. Mike Schmidt of the developer-funding nonprofit Brink will coordinate the effort on a volunteer basis.
Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, said Core developers do “incredibly important work” and said the consortium would make more funding available for Bitcoin’s long-term security.
Why the firms say the work starts now
Decrypt said quantum computers capable of breaking Bitcoin’s cryptography do not exist today. Even so, the newsletter pointed to roughly 6.9 million BTC, worth about $450 billion, sitting in addresses that would be vulnerable if such machines arrive.
Any fix would need coordinated changes across wallets, exchanges, miners and users, a process Decrypt said would take years. That is why work is already beginning on proposals such as BIP 360, described as a new output type designed to limit public key exposure, alongside post-quantum signature schemes.
The newsletter argued that this set of backers has a clear reason to support the effort. BlackRock runs the largest spot Bitcoin ETF, while Fidelity and ARK also have exposure through their ETF businesses. Strategy is identified as the biggest DAT and holds 843,775 BTC. Coinbase custodies much of the institutional supply and much of its product stack is tied to crypto trading. Decrypt framed support for Core developers as inexpensive insurance for firms with billions of dollars of client and shareholder exposure tied to Bitcoin’s long-term security.
Decrypt also said quantum risk has long been viewed as a major overhang for Bitcoin and noted that some investors have said outright that Bitcoin is not investable until the issue is solved. The newsletter added that some market participants doubt Bitcoin Core developers can move fast enough, or reach agreement fast enough, to make the needed changes in time. In that context, the firms with the most direct exposure are now stepping in.
Market and policy snapshot
Decrypt’s broader market roundup said major cryptocurrencies were modestly lower as interest-rate hike odds unsettled markets. BTC was down 1% at $65,000, ETH fell 2% to $1,880, SOL dropped 3% to $75 and HYPE slipped 1% to $58.40.
Among the day’s gainers, BEAT rose 4%, HASH added 4% and INJ gained 3%. Oil was flat at $90, while gold fell 1% to $4,060. Stock futures were slightly higher, with the DOW up 0.4% and the Nasdaq up 0.1%.
On U.S. policy, the CLARITY Act is expected to miss its window before the summer recess. Majority Leader Thune said he would like to “at least get Clarity started,” but acknowledged the August 7 deadline is likely to slip.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon backed the CLARITY Act despite banking industry objections to its stablecoin yield provisions, breaking with peers that have lobbied against those rules, according to Decrypt. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong warned that if the bill does not pass, part of Coinbase would have to move offshore.
Decrypt also noted that Coinbase opened AI agent payments to corporate customers, allowing businesses to accept payments from autonomous agents. Uniswap, meanwhile, moved deeper into tokenized assets with permissioned trading pools intended to let regulated real-world assets trade in gated venues instead of open liquidity markets.
ETFs, corporate flows and regional developments
Bitcoin ETFs posted $225 million in net outflows on Thursday, ending a seven-day inflow streak, while ETH ETFs recorded $26 million in inflows.
In Japan, Decrypt said the country could launch its first Bitcoin ETF as early as 2028 as it revises rules governing crypto investments.
Meme coin and on-chain activity
Meme coin leaders were mostly lower. DOGE fell 4%, SHIB lost 2%, PEPE dropped 3%, PENGU slid 3%, TRUMP fell 3% and BONK was down 2%.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev’s X account was hacked and used to promote a token during the Robinhood Chain meme coin frenzy. Decrypt said the “vladhood” token saw $30 million in volume.
Within Robinhood Chain names, PONS rose 36%, TENDIES jumped 49% and Cashcat gained 7% to a $52 million valuation. On Solana, leaders included looong at 43x, Cupsey up 70%, World up 30% and ANSEM flat at $175 million.
Tokens, airdrops and protocol tracker
MoonPay partnered with Discover Network to let U.S. cardholders buy thousands of supported tokens directly, including BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, SOL, TRX, HYPE and ZEC.
Stripe is in talks to buy OpenRouter for as much as $10 billion, The Information reported, roughly eight times its last valuation. Decrypt said the AI model marketplace is led by OpenSea co-founder Alex Atallah.
Kaito said it entered into a “data agreement with X to power a wide range of use cases.”
NFT market update
NFT leaders were mostly flat. Punks were unchanged at 32 ETH, BAYC slipped 1% to 8.6 ETH, Pudgy fell 2% to 4.1 ETH and Hypurr was flat at 185 HYPE.
Kaito Yapybaras, up 93%, and TTT, up 42%, led movers. FWA rose 14% on the day to $8 million, and Decrypt said the protocol recorded more than 30,000 NFT purchases and 1,500 ETH in volume across its first four days.