In July 2026, the world of Bitcoin was being pulled forward by two completely different yet closely related threads at the same time. On one side, custodial giants represented by Coinbase began to systematically plan for the "post-quantum era": it announced that it would upgrade its CoreKMS, which currently protects about 99.9% of custodial assets, to PQ-CoreKMS, and deliver an automated signing process supporting post-quantum signature algorithms within a year; almost simultaneously, nine institutions led by Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, BlackRock, Block, Blockstream, Coinbase, Fidelity, Galaxy, and Strategy established the Bitcoin Security Alliance, committing a total of $15 million over three years to fund Bitcoin core developers and quantum-resistant research, marking the first time the safety foundation of "digital gold" has been clearly priced with funding and organizational structure. On the other side, Bernstein's mining industry tracker recorded that new AI-related deals landed in every week of July, with multi-year contracts totaling over 7.5 gigawatts, about $150 billion, as Bitcoin mining companies accelerated the sale of electricity and space originally intended for network block services to the AI industry for third-party computing power. The potential threat of quantum computing to the existing encryption system, combined with the power bottleneck faced by data center construction in the AI era, converged at this moment to form a single issue: the Bitcoin ecosystem is evolving simultaneously along two main lines of "security upgrades" and "computing power monetization," attempting to secure a more stable and imaginative long-term position amid future technological shocks and real resource constraints.
Coinbase bets on post-quantum upgrades: Strengthening the custodial system in advance
At a time when the quantum threat was still considered a "possible future," it was the custodial giants who first took proactive steps to adjust their defenses. In July 2026, Coinbase announced through an official blog that it would upgrade its core key management system, CoreKMS, to a post-quantum version, PQ-CoreKMS, and deliver an automated signing process supporting post-quantum signature algorithms within a year—this is not a distant vision, but an engineering task written into the timeline. More critically, the existing CoreKMS is responsible for managing and generating on-chain signatures for approximately 99.9% of custodial assets, making it one of the systematic hubs of global crypto asset custody; any migration of a security architecture is equivalent to reinforcing the "critical node" of the entire industry in advance.
Why take action now? Bitcoin currently relies on the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA), and the industry universally worries that once scalable quantum computing matures, the existing public key encryption system could be reverse-engineered, making the large number of Bitcoin addresses and private keys held by custodial institutions prime targets for attack. Coinbase chose to start with key management, preparing a new post-quantum signature path and automated migration process for custodial assets before quantum computing truly possesses offensive capabilities, which means the ability to orderly rotate keys on-chain in the future, rather than reactively putting out fires in a crisis. The custodial layer has proactively "raced ahead of quantum," translating potential structural risks into manageable technical upgrade issues, making this one of the most symbolic actions in this round of Bitcoin security evolution.
Bitcoin Security Alliance established: Wall Street and native players on the same stage
At the same time that Coinbase pushed key management towards a post-quantum version, another security clue emerged from the funding side: nine institutions, including Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, BlackRock, Block, Blockstream, Coinbase, Fidelity, Galaxy, and Strategy, jointly announced the establishment of the Bitcoin Security Alliance, committing a total of $15 million over the next three years to fund Bitcoin core developers and quantum-resistant research. Half of the institutions on the list are native players deeply rooted in on-chain infrastructure, and half are Wall Street giants and asset management behemoths managing trillions of dollars; this cross-layer collaboration is in itself a collective statement on the proposition that "the long-term security of Bitcoin is worth maintaining with mainstream capital."
Distributing $15 million over three years is not a huge number that will change the industry’s financial structure, but it sends a clear signal over time: security is no longer seen as temporary donation but must be tied to the long-term narrative of "digital gold," invested in accordance with years of research rhythms. Currently, public information only points out the funding commitment and the direction of quantum resistance; the governance structure and specific distribution mechanisms of the alliance have not yet been disclosed, but for the decentralized core developer community, this type of long-term funding co-built with multiple parties is quietly rewriting the answer to an old question—who will pay for Bitcoin's security in the next phase of quantum threat and protocol upgrades, is transitioning from anonymous sponsors and individual companies to a coalition of named capital with balance sheets.
Mining facilities become AI computing power bases: 7.5 gigawatts contract explosion
As the security alliance rewrote the rules for "who pays for Bitcoin's security," another type of long-term commitment was being discussed in the boardrooms of mining companies. Bernstein tracked Bitcoin mining industry transactions showing that July 2026 was almost at a "weekly update" pace—its transaction tracker recorded a new AI-related transaction every week of that month. By mid-month, the total scale of related multi-year contracts had exceeded 7.5 gigawatts, converting to a long-term contract value of about $150 billion; this is not just an experiment from one or two mining facilities, but a whole industry chain betting on a new storyline of "computing power output."
Behind these contracts, Bitcoin mining companies are experimenting with a reversal of business logic: in the past, they used the electricity and facilities they secured for self-mining computing power to directly convert hash values into block rewards; now, they are connecting the same electricity and physical facilities to the demand side of AI companies, selling third-party computing power services. Bernstein's report highlighted a background: newly constructed data centers in the U.S. are facing stronger political resistance, leading power access to become one of the actual bottlenecks for the AI industry. In this context, Bitcoin mining companies with existing power contracts, remote locations, and scattered facilities are naturally better positioned than new players to repackage power and land into "AI computing power parks." For mining company management, which has faced pressure on revenue from several rounds of halving, these multi-year contracts of 7.5 gigawatts and $150 billion are not just a directional choice to bet on AI, but a proactive effort to redefine their business boundaries based on existing power assets.
Interweaving security tracks and computing power tracks: Reallocation in the Bitcoin ecosystem
On one side are the "defensive battles" surrounding keys and protocols, while on the other are the "expansion battles" surrounding power and data centers. In the security track, Coinbase announced it would upgrade the core key management system protecting about 99.9% of custodial assets to the post-quantum version PQ-CoreKMS, promising to deliver an automated process supporting post-quantum signature algorithms within a year; almost simultaneously, Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, BlackRock, Block, Blockstream, Coinbase, Fidelity, Galaxy, and Strategy formed the Bitcoin Security Alliance, committing $15 million over three years to fund Bitcoin core developers and quantum-resistant research. The roles here have been subtly restructured: traditional asset management giants are no longer just buying "digital gold," but are moving to the front end of the security stack, directly paying for the long-term reliability of the underlying protocol; crypto-native companies are sending operational experience and technical lines into the alliance, materializing the narrative of "security settlement layers" as a collaborative project of funding and human resources.
In contrast, on the computing power track, Bernstein recorded that Bitcoin mining companies signed a new AI-related multi-year contract almost every week in July 2026, totaling over 7.5 gigawatts, about $150 billion, as Bitcoin mining operations were repackaged into third-party computing power platforms for the AI industry. Mining companies transitioned from being solely dependent on block rewards to operators of power and space resources, renting out infrastructure originally built for mining to algorithms and models, allowing the narrative of Bitcoin's "computing power infrastructure" to present itself in contractor agreements and massive figures for the first time. The result is a new division of labor: the security alliance, custodial institutions, and developers are building a quantum-resistant, tradable value layer around the protocol itself, while mining companies are commodifying and servicing physical computing power beneath that value layer. The narratives of digital gold, secure settlement layers, and computing power infrastructure are no longer mutually exclusive labels, but are forced to find an integrated path that can maintain currency attributes while carrying industrial computing power within the parallel realities of security investment and computing power commercialization.
Quantum countdown and AI computing power competition: What to watch next
Next, the most critical observation variable on the security side will be whether quantum-resistant research can transition from concepts and papers to specific proposals applicable at the Bitcoin layer. Coinbase has provided a timeline of delivering automated signing processes supporting post-quantum signature algorithms within a year, and when its PQ-CoreKMS plan was publicly disclosed in July 2026, it was protecting about 99.9% of custodial assets, meaning that once the custodial side switches, the entire ecosystem will feel the pressure. What truly needs to be watched is, under this pressure, whether and when the Bitcoin core protocol will propose post-quantum signature or key schemes and gain sufficient consensus within the community, rather than leaving the risk isolated in peripheral infrastructure. On the alliance side, the observation point is also clear: the Bitcoin Security Alliance has committed to invest $15 million over three years, but as of July 23, 2026, the governance structure and funding allocation path have not yet been disclosed. How this funding will ultimately reach specific developers and projects and whether it will establish a sustainable review and funding mechanism will determine whether this round of security investment is a one-time window or a new long-term institutional arrangement. Computing power and mining companies will need to keep an eye on how the multi-year AI contracts totaling more than 7.5 gigawatts and approximately $150 billion recorded in Bernstein's report are actually delivered—against the backdrop of new data centers in the U.S. facing political resistance and power being regarded as a bottleneck, Bitcoin mining companies leveraging existing power and space resources to provide third-party computing services for AI may be compelled to adjust their path as environmental and regulatory changes occur. Overall, the Bitcoin ecosystem has entered a new phase where security and computing power are equally emphasized, but the real timeline of quantum computing and the evolution of AI demand curves remain highly uncertain. Whether Bitcoin can maintain sustainable synergy on both the tracks of quantum-resistant technology and AI computing power commercialization will require continuous tracking of public planning, alliance funding implementation, and progress in mining company contracts over the next few years.
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