Morning Minute: Bitcoin’s New $15M Quantum Defense Fund

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analyzes and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt.

GM!

Today’s most important news:

• Crypto majors are slightly red as ETF flows weaken; BTC at $65k
• BTC ETFs see net outflows of $225 million, breaking inflow streak; ETH sees an inflow of $26 million
• The Clarity Act will likely miss the August recess cutoff date, Thune says
• MoonPay announces partnership with Discover to unlock crypto access for millions of cardholders
• Vlad Tenev’s X Hacked to Post ‘Vladhood’ Meme Coin Hits $30 Million in Volume

🔐 BlackRock, Coinbase and Strategy Back a $15 Million Bitcoin Quantum Defense Fund

Nine of the biggest names in finance and crypto formed the Bitcoin Security Consortium, which collectively committed $15 million over three years to fund Bitcoin security research and open source development aimed at defending quantum computers.

Its members are BlackRock, Coinbase, Strategy, Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, Block, Blockstream, Fidelity Digital Assets and Galaxy. The consortium will not own or allocate the money, each member chooses which developers and researchers to fund directly, and the group says it will not drive Bitcoin development or take positions on protocol changes. Mike Schmidt of the developer-funded nonprofit Brink will coordinate on a volunteer basis. BlackRock’s head of digital assets, Robert Mitchnick, said Core developers are doing “incredibly important work” and that the group would make more funding available for Bitcoin’s long-term security.

Quantum computers that can break Bitcoin’s cryptography no longer exist today. But there is roughly 6.9 million BTC ($450 billion) sitting in addresses that would be vulnerable if one arrived, and any solution requires coordinating changes between wallets, exchanges, miners and users, which will take years. That’s why proposals like BIP 360, a new output type designed to limit exposure to public keys, are now being worked on, alongside post-quantum signature schemes.

It makes sense that this particular group would support quantum defense research. BlackRock runs the largest spot Bitcoin ETF, alongside Fidelity and ARK. Strategy is the largest DAT and contains 843,775 coins. Coinbase runs a large portion of the institutional offering and most of their products revolve around crypto trading. These companies have billions in customer and shareholder exposure to assets that they now have to account for for long-term security – making core developer financing cheap insurance.

It is well known that quantum risk for Bitcoin will pose a huge overhang in the near future, and many investors have outright said that Bitcoin is uninvestable until the quantum solution is solved. Many don’t believe that BTC’s core developers can move (and reach agreement) fast enough to make the kind of changes needed to solve quantum in time. Enter those with the most skin in the game. If anyone can pull it off, it’s probably this group…

🌎 Macrocrypto and markets

• Crypto majors are slightly red as rates hike chances roil markets; BTC -1% at $65k; ETH -2% at $1,880; SOL -3% at $75; HYPE -1% for $58.40
• DEFEAT (+4%)HASH (+4%) and INJ (+3%) were the leaders
• Oil even for $90; Gold -1% at $4,060
• Stock futures are light green; DOW +0.4%, Nasdaq +0.1%
• The CLARITY Act is expected to miss his window before the summer recess, with Majority Leader Thune saying he wants to “at least get Clarity started” but conceding the August 7 deadline is likely to move
• Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon supported the CLARITY Act despite the banking industry’s objections to stablecoin yield rules, contrary to industry peers who have lobbied against these provisions
• Brian Armstrong warned that if the Clarity Act is not passedwould have to move part of Coinbase offshore
• Coin base opened AI agent payments to enterprise customersallowing businesses to accept money from autonomous agents
• Uniswap pushed deeper into tokenized assets with approved trading pools, allowing regulated real-world assets to be traded in closed locations rather than through open liquidity

Corporate bonds and ETFs

Meme coin tracker

• Meme leaders were usually red; DOGE -4%, SHIB -2%, PEPE -3%, PENGU -3%, TRUMP -3%, BONK -2%
• Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev’s X account was hacked to promote a token during the Robinhood Chain meme coin frenzy, where the “vladhood” token saw $30 million in volume
• Robinhood chain was led by PONS (+36%) and TENDIES (+49%); Cashcat +7% to $52 million
• Solana leaders including Looong (+43x), Cupsey (+70%) and World (+30%); ANSEM even for $175 million

💰 Token, airdrop and protocol tracker

• Discover Network works together with MoonPay to let US cardholders directly purchase thousands of supported tokens, 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, about 8x the last valuation; The AI ​​model marketplace is led by Alex Atallah, co-founder of OpenSea
• Kaito announced that it has entered into a “data agreement with X to enable a wide range of use cases”

🚚 What’s happening in NFTs?

• NFT Leaders were largely flat; Punks even at 32 ETH, BAYC -1% at 8.6 ETH, Pudgy -2% at 4.1 ETH; Hypurr is even at 185 HYPE
• Kaito Yapybaras (+93%) and TTT (+42%) top movers
• FWA is up 14% on the day to $8 million, with the protocol over 30,000 NFT purchases and 1,500 ETH in volume during the first 4 days