Major Financial Institutions Launch Bitcoin Security Consortium with $15 Million to Address Quantum Computing Threats

Jul 23, 2026

On July 23, 2026, leading financial institutions including BlackRock, Strategy, and Coinbase launched the Bitcoin Security Consortium, pledging $15 million over three years to support developers and researchers. The initiative targets long-term security threats, particularly from quantum computing. Research indicates that approximately 6.9 million Bitcoin are currently vulnerable to quantum attacks. To address this, Galaxy Digital independently launched a $5 million Quantum Readiness Initiative to fund quantum-resistant signature schemes and wallet migration tools.

Bitcoin Security Consortium formation

▪Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, BlackRock, Block, Blockstream, Coinbase, Fidelity Digital Assets, Galaxy, and Strategy launched the Bitcoin Security Consortium on July 23, 2026.
▪Mike Schmidt, the Executive Director of Brink, coordinates the day-to-day work of the Bitcoin Security Consortium in a volunteer capacity.
▪The Bitcoin Security Consortium is backed by an aggregate of $15 million in member pledges over the next three years

Quantum computing threat to Bitcoin

▪A March 2026 paper by Google Quantum AI, the Ethereum Foundation, and Stanford University showed that breaking Bitcoin's secp256k1 elliptic curve cryptography may require fewer resources than previously estimated
▪A sufficiently advanced quantum computer running Shor's algorithm could derive a private key from a revealed public key to forge transactions
▪Approximately 6.9 million Bitcoin, representing about one-third of all mined Bitcoin, have exposed public keys on-chain and are potentially vulnerable to quantum computing attacks

Post-quantum cryptography development funding

▪Galaxy Digital's Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Initiative grant program targets quantum-resistant signature schemes, wallet migration tools, and security audits
▪Galaxy Digital committed $5 million to its Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Initiative to fund developer grants, a research program, and an advisory council.

Institutional Bitcoin ecosystem collaboration

▪Each member of the Bitcoin Security Consortium independently directs and decides how to distribute its own funding to developers, researchers, and organizations
▪The Bitcoin Security Consortium will not develop or direct Bitcoin's protocol, takes no position on protocol changes, and does not speak for Bitcoin developers.

Open-source Bitcoin development model

▪Bitcoin Improvement Proposals BIP-360 and BIP-361 outline technical migration paths toward quantum-resistant alternatives, with BIP-360 merging into the official repository in February 2026.
▪Upgrading Bitcoin's cryptography to post-quantum standards is expected to take years of coordination across core developers, wallet providers, exchanges, and users