The dip in MSTR’s stock came alongside weakness in the overall cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin’s price dropping below the $65,000 level.
- The consortium includes major players who have committed $15 million over three years for developer funding and research on post-quantum cryptography.
- Strategy CEO Phong Le said the firm’s interest lies in securing Bitcoin due to its status as the largest corporate holder.
- The group is prepping Bitcoin for quantum computing risks, which are years away but a technical priority for the community.
Shares of Strategy (MSTR) fell at the market open on Thursday despite teaming with other cryptocurrency firms to support the Bitcoin (BTC) network amid weakness in the cryptocurrency market.
Strategy, along with eight others of Bitcoin’s biggest institutional players, stated they are teaming together to support the network’s long-term security, committing a combined $15 million over the next three years to developer funding and post-quantum cryptography research.
MSTR’s price was down over 4% during morning trade. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around MSTR remained in the ‘Neutral’ zone, while chatter stayed at ‘low’ levels over the past day.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s price was trading at around $64,900, down over 1% in the last 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around BTC remained in the ‘bullish’ zone, while chatter stayed at ‘low’ levels over the past day.
One user, among many, said that MSTR is unlikely to rise over $100. The user cited a previous post they made where they said they were short at an average of $109 and would “sleep fine and relax,” calling for a 52-week low.
Founding members include Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, BlackRock (BLK), Block (XYZ), Blockstream, Coinbase (COIN), Fidelity Digital Assets, and Galaxy Digital (GLXY). The consortium, based in Tysons Corner, Virginia, is a cross-section of custodians, exchanges, asset managers, payments providers, and infrastructure firms.
Consortium Takes No Protocol Role
The group said that the Consortium explicitly will not develop or direct Bitcoin’s protocol, will take no position on specific protocol changes, and will not speak for Bitcoin or its developers.
The group stated that Bitcoin development remained the work of a worldwide, decentralized community of contributors and modeled itself after industry associations that have long supported the open-source software they rely on without controlling it.
The day-to-day coordination will be done by Mike Schmidt, Executive Director of Brink, a charity that focuses on Bitcoin open-source developers. Additionally, the group said that Schmidt will serve as a volunteer.
The Quantum Question
The Consortium said that its main focus is preparing Bitcoin for a potential quantum computing future. The announcement stressed that large-scale quantum computers that could threaten Bitcoin’s cryptography do not exist today, with credible estimates of it happening seeming years away.
However, the group described post-quantum protections as a substantive long-term priority that Bitcoin’s technical community is already actively pursuing, and said it hopes to provide a grounded reference point as the field evolves.
Members Frame It As Self-Interest
Strategy CEO Phong Le linked the pledge directly to the firm’s status as the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, noting that long-term holders have every incentive to want the network to remain secure for generations and funding the people doing that work is a natural way to contribute.
This follows a move by Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman of Strategy, to increase his opposition to BIP-110, arguing that the proposal is against Bitcoin’s founding principles rather than technical grounds. He called the desire to control how others use the network statist, and not in line with a community based on liberty and free markets, and ended by describing the proposal as enforcing monetary purity by fiat.
Read also: BitMEX Token BMEX Crashes Over 90% As Exchange Announces Shutdown In September After 11-Year Run
For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com<