Strategy announced that it has partnered with eight financial and crypto institutions to launch the "Bitcoin Security Alliance," planning to invest $15 million over the next three years to support Bitcoin security research and development. The first key focus is on quantum computing security preparedness.
Alliance members include ETFs and custodians.
Founding members include Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, BlackRock, Block, Blockstream, Coinbase, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Galaxy Digital. Participants include spot Bitcoin ETF issuers, custodians, and Bitcoin infrastructure companies.
Strategy stated that Brink's executive director, Mike Schmidt, will be responsible for the league's day-to-day coordination on a volunteer basis. He will not receive compensation from the league and will continue to operate Brink independently.
The first batch of funding focuses on quantum protection.
According to Strategy, the funding will primarily support developers and researchers already working on Bitcoin security. Initially, the consortium will not have a unified stance on protocol upgrades; instead, each member will decide which projects to fund.
Schmidt stated that the consortium will not form a collective stance on Bitcoin upgrades, nor will it directly control protocol decisions. Related technical changes will still follow Bitcoin's existing review and discussion processes.
The disclosed total amount of funds reached US$20 million.
Prior to joining the consortium, Galaxy Digital had already launched a separate $5 million "Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Program," which is now open for applications. This program focuses on supporting quantum-resistant signature schemes, wallet migration tools, and independent security audits.
Based on disclosed data, the alliance's $15 million commitment, combined with Galaxy's separate $5 million project, totals $20 million. However, the two arrangements are independent of each other, and alliance members still retain control over their respective funding decisions.
Approximately 6.9 million BTC are alleged to have potential exposure.
Several institutions and researchers believe that if future quantum computers possess the ability to break elliptic curve cryptography, the security model of Bitcoin wallets will face challenges. However, there is currently no evidence that existing machines possess this capability, and most experts do not believe there will be a direct threat in the short term.
Galaxy, citing research from CryptoQuant, stated that approximately 6.9 million BTC could be exposed to risk if Bitcoin's current encryption methods are effectively cracked in the future. Based on market prices at the time of the announcement, this asset was valued at approximately $461 billion.
Citigroup previously gave a similar estimate, believing that the public keys of 6.5 million to 6.9 million BTC are already visible on the blockchain, making them easier targets in future quantum attack scenarios. Polymarket data shows that the market bets on a probability of "quantum computing breaking Bitcoin by the end of 2027" of approximately 14%.
