The Blockchain for Good Alliance (BGA), the non-profit founded by crypto exchange Bybit, has signed a two-year agreement with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to build cybersecurity capacity among public institutions, as governments face rising AI-enabled fraud and increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.

The agreement was signed in Singapore by Edward Vrkić, UNDP’s resident representative to Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam, and Helen Liu, founder of BGA, at the Cybersecurity, Trust and Digital Safety Launch Summit held at the UNDP Global Centre for Technology, Innovation and Sustainable Development.

Programme to cover data protection, payments and incident response

The initiative will be run by UNDP’s Alternative Finance Lab (AltFinLab) in collaboration with BGA over two years. It will draw on cybersecurity expertise from BGA’s ecosystem to build capacity in data protection, secure digital payments, incident response and resilient public services, through the SDG Blockchain Accelerator and the Government Blockchain Academy, a training programme for public officials.

The partnership builds on BGA’s existing role as a strategic partner of the UNDP SDG Blockchain Accelerator, now in its third cohort, and its seat on the Blockchain Advisory Group, a forum UNDP convenes with blockchain industry leaders.

“The governments we support are facing growing and increasingly complex cybersecurity challenges, driven by ongoing conflicts, AI-enabled fraud, and more sophisticated cyberattacks,” said Robert Pašičko, UNDP AltFinLab team lead. “Strengthening cybersecurity capacities and building resilient, trusted digital systems are essential to addressing these risks.”

Signing followed panel on digital trust

The signing was followed by a panel discussion on securing digital trust, featuring Vrkić, Liu, Pašičko and Mykolas Majauskas, global head of policy at Bybit, moderated by Glenn Tan, director of global affairs at BGA. The panel discussed how cybersecurity has become a development concern, how Singapore’s regulatory approach compares with other regions, and how public institutions can share lessons through public-private partnerships.

“It is fitting that this begins in Singapore, with a small group, and with the people who will actually deliver it,” said Helen Liu. “The industry BGA comes from has learned about cybersecurity and digital safety the hard way. This partnership puts what it learned to work for the public good.”

Tan said the private sector holds much of the cybersecurity expertise that public institutions need but often cannot access directly. “This partnership opens that door,” he said.