Morning Minute, a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner, reported that nine major finance and crypto firms have formed the Bitcoin Security Consortium and pledged a combined $15 million over three years to support Bitcoin security research and open-source development focused on defenses against quantum computing risks. The analysis and opinions in the newsletter are Warner’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt.

The consortium’s members are BlackRock, Coinbase, Strategy, Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, Block, Blockstream, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Galaxy. According to the report, the consortium itself will not hold or allocate the money. Instead, each participating member will decide directly which developers and researchers to fund. The group also said it will not direct Bitcoin development or take positions on protocol changes.

Mike Schmidt of Brink, a nonprofit focused on funding Bitcoin developers, will coordinate the effort on a volunteer basis. Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, said Bitcoin Core developers “do incredibly important work” and said the group would make more funding available for Bitcoin’s long-term security.

Quantum computers capable of breaking Bitcoin’s cryptography do not exist today, the report noted. Bitcoin’s signing scheme relies on elliptic curve cryptography, which a sufficiently powerful quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm could theoretically defeat. However, roughly 6.9 million BTC, worth about $450 billion, are held in addresses that would be vulnerable if such a computer were created. Any fix would require coordination across wallets, exchanges, miners, and users, a process that could take years.

The newsletter said work is beginning now on proposals such as BIP 360, a new output type intended to limit public key exposure, along with post-quantum signature schemes. The effort parallels broader industry work on post-quantum standards, including the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology’s process for standardizing quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms.

Warner wrote that the companies backing the effort have significant exposure to Bitcoin. BlackRock operates the largest spot Bitcoin ETF, while Fidelity and ARK also run spot Bitcoin ETF products. Strategy is described in the newsletter as the largest DAT and holds 843,775 coins. Coinbase custodies a large share of institutional supply, and much of its business is tied to crypto trading. Warner characterized developer funding as “cheap insurance” for firms with billions in client and shareholder exposure to Bitcoin.

The newsletter also said quantum risk has been widely viewed as a major long-term overhang for Bitcoin, and that some investors have said Bitcoin is not investable until the issue is solved. Warner wrote that some observers do not believe Bitcoin Core developers can move quickly enough, or reach agreement, on the changes needed to address quantum risk in time.

Crypto and macro markets

Major crypto assets were slightly lower as interest rate hike odds weighed on markets, according to the newsletter. BTC was down 1% at $65,000, ETH was down 2% at $1,880, SOL was down 3% at $75, and HYPE was down 1% at $58.40.

Among top movers, BEAT rose 4%, HASH rose 4%, and INJ rose 3%. Oil was unchanged at $90, while gold fell 1% to $4,060. Stock futures were slightly higher, with Dow futures up 0.4% and Nasdaq futures up 0.1%.

The CLARITY Act, a bipartisan bill aimed at establishing a federal regulatory framework for digital asset markets and stablecoins, is expected to miss its window before the summer recess. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he would like to “at least get Clarity started,” but conceded that the August 7 deadline will likely slip.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon backed the CLARITY Act despite banking industry objections to its stablecoin yield rules, breaking with peers who have lobbied against those provisions. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong warned that if the Clarity Act does not pass, part of Coinbase would have to move offshore.

Coinbase also opened AI agent payments to corporate customers, allowing businesses to accept payments from autonomous agents. Uniswap moved further into tokenized assets with permissioned trading pools, enabling regulated real-world assets to trade in gated venues rather than open liquidity pools.

Corporate treasuries and ETFs

Bitcoin ETFs saw $225 million in net outflows on Thursday, ending a seven-day inflow streak. Ether ETFs saw $26 million in inflows.

Japan may launch its first Bitcoin ETF as soon as 2028 as the country revises its crypto investment rules.

Meme coin tracker

Meme coin leaders were mostly lower. DOGE fell 4%, SHIB fell 2%, PEPE fell 3%, PENGU fell 3%, TRUMP fell 3%, and BONK fell 2%.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev’s X account was hacked to promote a token during the Robinhood Chain meme coin frenzy. The “vladhood” token recorded $30 million in volume.

On Robinhood Chain, PONS rose 36% and TENDIES rose 49%, while Cashcat gained 7% to $52 million. Solana leaders included looong, up 43x; Cupsey, up 70%; and World, up 30%. ANSEM was unchanged at $175 million.

Tokens, airdrops and protocols

Discover Network partnered with MoonPay to allow U.S. cardholders to buy thousands of supported tokens directly, including BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, SOL, TRX, HYPE, and ZEC.

Stripe is in talks to buy OpenRouter for up to $10 billion, according to The Information. That price would be roughly eight times OpenRouter’s last valuation. The AI-model marketplace is led by OpenSea co-founder Alex Atallah.

Kaito announced that it had entered into a “data agreement with X to power a wide range of use cases.”

NFTs

NFT leaders were mostly flat. CryptoPunks were unchanged at 32 ETH, Bored Ape Yacht Club fell 1% to 8.6 ETH, Pudgy Penguins fell 2% to 4.1 ETH, and Hypurr’s was unchanged at 185 HYPE.

Kaito Yapybaras rose 93% and TTT rose 42%, leading top movers. FWA was up 14% on the day to $8 million, with the protocol recording more than 30,000 NFT purchases and 1,500 ETH in volume during its first four days.