9 Bitcoin Giants Pledge $15M to Protect the Network, While the S&P Launches a New Crypto Revenue Index

While Bitcoin investors keep waiting on Washington — the CLARITY Act is still stuck in the Senate ahead of the August 7 recess, and regulators have missed their deadline to finish the GENIUS Act's implementing rules — the industry spent the week doing something more productive: building.

Two stories stood out to me this week. Nine of the biggest names in institutional Bitcoin formed a consortium to fund the network's long-term security, and S&P Dow Jones Indices, the firm behind the S&P 500, launched its first crypto benchmark built around protocol revenue.

TL;DR

• Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, BlackRock, Block, Blockstream, Coinbase, Fidelity Digital Assets, Galaxy, and Strategy launched the Bitcoin Security Consortium, pledging an aggregate $15 million over three years to support Bitcoin's security and post-quantum research, with zero claims on Bitcoin's governance.

• S&P Dow Jones Indices and Pantera Capital launched an 18-token index of revenue-earning crypto protocols. Bitcoin isn’t part of it.

Collective Institutional Bitcoin Stewardship Has Begun

For five years, the corporate Bitcoin playbook has mostly had one move: accumulate as much BTC as possible. This week added a second one.

It started on Tuesday, when Strive, the asset manager holding roughly 19,900 BTC, announced its Bitcoin Stewardship Commitment: a formal position that institutions benefiting from Bitcoin should share responsibility for preserving the network, starting with funding open-source development through Brink, the nonprofit that supports Bitcoin Core contributors.

Then, Wednesday happened.

Nine of the biggest names in institutional Bitcoin — Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, BlackRock, Block, Blockstream, Coinbase, Fidelity Digital Assets, Galaxy, and Strategy — announced the Bitcoin Security Consortium, backed by an aggregate $15 million in member pledges over the next three years.

The money goes toward the long-term security and resilience of the network, including post-quantum research as developers explore protections against future advances in quantum computing. 

Day-to-day coordination sits with Mike Schmidt, Executive Director of Brink, serving in a volunteer capacity.

There is no pooled treasury, no allocation committee, and no grant council. Instead, each member directs its own funding independently to the developers, researchers, and organizations it chooses. And every member explicitly committed to taking no role in Bitcoin governance or protocol decisions.

Read that again. Nine firms that collectively touch trillions in assets sat down, wrote a joint pledge, and the first structural decision they made was to give themselves no power over the protocol.

These firms have built ETFs, custody platforms, treasury strategies, and entire business lines on top of Bitcoin. They know exactly what they bought, which is an asset whose value rests on the fact that nobody, including them, controls it. 

Funding the network's security while disclaiming any influence over it is the only rational move for institutions whose products depend on Bitcoin staying neutral.

The skeptics spent years warning that Wall Street would try to capture Bitcoin. This week, Wall Street put $15 million behind the opposite conclusion: Bitcoin works because it can't be captured.

Fun fact: At Samara, we donated $150,000 to Brink in April 2023 to support open-source development after I met Mike and learned about his amazing work contributing to the growth and development of the Bitcoin network. 

The S&P Built a Crypto Index, and Bitcoin Isn't in It 

S&P Dow Jones Indices, the company behind the S&P 500, teamed up with Pantera Capital this week to launch an 18-token index of revenue-earning crypto protocols called the S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index. Ether, BNB, Solana, TRON, and Hyperliquid carry the biggest weights.

The headline most outlets ran with highlighted that Bitcoin wasn’t included. Both halves of this story matter, so let's take them in order.

First, the index itself. Benchmarks are how passive capital eventually arrives. Before index funds could track the S&P 500, someone had to define the S&P 500. The world's most important index provider building crypto benchmarks is the early infrastructure for the next wave of allocation, the same way the first crypto indices at MSCI and FTSE preceded broader institutional products. Boring, structural, important.

Second, the omission of Bitcoin. BTC wasn't excluded because S&P forgot about it. It was excluded because the index measures protocol revenue, and Bitcoin isn't a revenue asset. 

It's the monetary base layer. A different category entirely.

I've made this argument to TradFi audiences for years: putting Bitcoin in the same bucket as revenue-generating protocols is a category error, like benchmarking gold against software companies. The S&P building a revenue index and leaving Bitcoin out of it isn't a snub. It's the world's most influential index shop agreeing with the distinction Bitcoiners have been drawing all along.

Money is one thing, while applications are another.

Elsewhere in Bitcoin

A quick look at what else has been happening in Bitcoin:

• Citadel Securities invested $400 million in Crypto.com, one of the largest market-maker investments in a crypto exchange to date

• Michael Saylor argued that corporate Bitcoin buying could set a structural price floor, with 194 public companies now holding BTC

• Visa launched its Stablecoin Platform last week, opening stablecoin issuance and settlement tools to over 15,000 financial institutions and 200 million merchants

Your fellow stacker in sats,

Patrick Lowry

PS: If you want to see how the value of goods and services changes when priced in Bitcoin, check out the Samara Bitcoin CPI. It might give you a new perspective on holding Bitcoin on your company's balance sheet or just as an individual.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this newsletter are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of any associated company. This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, financial, or any other professional advice. Nothing here is a solicitation, offer, or recommendation to buy or sell any asset or to use any service. Investing in cryptocurrencies is highly speculative and carries a significant risk of substantial financial loss, so you must conduct your own thorough research and consult with independent professional advisors before making any decisions.