quantum

Justin Sun stated at the Bitcoin Asia 2026 conference in Hong Kong that the threat of quantum computing to blockchain and the entire financial system is widespread, and traditional banks like JPMorgan are also facing risks.Due to the highly decentralized nature of the Bitcoin community, which involves multiple participants such as miners, exchanges, and WBTC, reaching a consensus on quantum resistance will take a long time. Justin Sun mentioned that TRON has been developing quantum-resistant mechanisms over the past year, and in the first half of this year, they released a quantum-resistant address solution and launched it on the testnet, with plans to upgrade the entire network to a mainstream cryptocurrency network with quantum resistance capabilities by the end of this year.

Blockstream has released a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) proposing the SHRINCS post-quantum signature scheme. SHRINCS is a hash-based post-quantum signature scheme with a minimum size of 548 bytes, approximately 9 times larger than the existing Schnorr signatures, but much smaller than the NIST-approved ML-DSA and SPHINCS+ schemes. The scheme has completed production environment testing on the Liquid sidechain and includes a copy of the Bitcoin white paper.The scheme also has limitations. The BIP warns that security proofs are still pending, and the scheme is stateful, requiring the storage of used keys for each signature, which increases the signature size by 16 bytes with each use. In the event of device loss, approximately 5777 bytes are needed for a stateless fallback transaction recovery. Blockstream estimates that Bitcoin can maintain a speed of about 3 TPS after adopting SHRINCS, which can be increased to 6.7 TPS when combined with ZK proof aggregation.

According to The Block, StarkWare announced that the first quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction has been successfully executed.StarkWare's Avihu Levy used signature aggregation technology to protect public key data while ensuring that transactions are secure in the Bitcoin mempool, thereby introducing a second layer of security to protect assets.

According to CoinDesk, Ethereum researchers have proposed rebuilding the validator deposit contract to support a new cryptographic system and ultimately stop accepting deposits protected by the existing BLS signatures. This proposal targets the deposit contract, aiming to add a switch that prevents the network from accepting the currently relied-upon signature format.Currently, the contract only accepts BLS keys because their exact size is hardcoded, while the new draft allows for different key sizes, with each deposit tagged by the cryptographic system used, where BLS receives a tag of zero, reserving space for future schemes.If the proposal is approved, it will initially operate with BLS deposits, while other schemes can be registered simultaneously. Future decisions may permanently disable new BLS deposits, at which point validators who have staked using BLS keys will not disappear, but new validators will not be able to join using this method. Ethereum will ultimately need to change separately to inform validators how to check new signatures. This is part of the migration for validators, while another part is already in progress—EIP-8141 framework transaction proposals will allow regular Ethereum accounts to change the cryptographic method for approving transactions without changing their address.The urgency stems from research released in March by Google's Quantum AI research department, which outlined five quantum attack paths against Ethereum, putting over $100 billion in assets at potential risk. The Ethereum Foundation is advancing core protocol changes with a target around 2029. Currently, the amount of ETH staked in Ethereum is approximately 42.4 million, valued at about $10.4 billion.

According to Newswire, IBM announced that it has completed the acquisition of HRL Laboratories, LLC, a leading research and development institution specializing in quantum computing, quantum sensing, advanced communications, electronics, manufacturing, and materials science. This acquisition also complements IBM's broader innovations and investments in the fields of quantum manufacturing and infrastructure.HRL's expertise in silicon-based quantum technology creates opportunities for future collaboration with IBM's pure quantum wafer fabrication plant, Anderon, supporting scalable manufacturing methods and accelerating the learning cycles of various quantum computing paradigms. Boeing and General Motors (the former owners of HRL) will continue to collaborate with IBM and HRL on quantum applications and advanced technology development. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

According to an announcement on the official website of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Department of the Treasury has announced the launch of the Quantum Readiness Working Group. This working group is a public-private partnership mechanism that will promote the orderly and resilient transition of the U.S. financial industry to post-quantum technology, and will connect to the roadmap for post-quantum cryptography migration developed by the G7 Cyber Experts Group.The working group will operate through three workstreams: "Industry Collaboration and Post-Quantum Cryptography Migration," "Third-Party and Vendor Readiness," and "Digital Asset and Emerging Technology Risks." It will bring together government, financial institutions, financial market infrastructure, technology vendors, and other private sector participants, focusing on identifying critical dependencies, enhancing cryptographic agility and interoperability, strengthening the protection of critical financial infrastructure, and addressing implementation challenges related to third-party dependencies and digital assets.

The Ethereum community has released a deposit contract EIP proposal that supports post-quantum computing. The proposal aims to introduce a new contract that supports variable-length public keys and credential metadata, along with a clear scheme identifier, where scheme 0 is reserved for the current BLS deposits.The new contract no longer relies on the Merkle tree structure of the old deposit contract but instead passes deposit information to the consensus layer through execution requests derived from EIP-7685 logs. This contract features an irreversible mode controlled by protocol system calls: deposits are initially disabled, BLS deposits are enabled at a specified timestamp, and BLS deposits are permanently disabled at a later timestamp, with no option for re-enabling. During the migration period, the execution client must merge deposit requests from the new and old contracts.

Shanghai issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for Accelerating the Advancement of New Industrialization and Building a Modern Industrial System." The plan proposes to comprehensively enhance intelligent computing capabilities, tackle high-performance, low-power, and high-efficiency intelligent computing chips, improve cluster networking and cloud service capabilities, and explore innovative architectures such as heterogeneous computing, optical computing, and quantum artificial intelligence; optimize intelligent computing infrastructure and build an urban computing power network.The plan clearly states the continuous effort on large models, focusing on the research and development of the next generation of large models, overcoming key technologies such as architecture design and training optimization, promoting the coordinated development of chips, large models, and intelligent computing clouds, and building an independent ecosystem. It further promotes the "Model Power Gathering in Shanghai" initiative, accelerates the maturation of embodied intelligence technology, strengthens the autonomous full industrial chain layout of intelligent robots, enhances performance in key areas, and promotes real-world applications in key fields such as industrial manufacturing, logistics assembly, commercial retail, medical care, and housekeeping services. Among them, Jing'an District focuses on developing leading industry characteristic tracks such as ultra-high-definition audio-visual, data intelligence (data corpus and AI applications, blockchain), and beauty and health.

The Responsible Fintech Institute (RFI) and the cryptocurrency asset custody infrastructure provider Safeheron announced the launch of a pilot program for quantum-resistant digital asset wallets and on-chain transfers, with participants from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The pilot operates on the quantum-resistant NEAR testnet and uses a multiparty computation protocol that supports the ML-DSA-65 standard.Participating regulatory bodies include the Abu Dhabi Global Market, Bhutan's Gelephu Financial Services Office, and Malta's Financial Services Authority, with Bison Bank and DK Bank participating as financial institutions. The banks will test wallet generation and transfers in a shared application environment, while regulatory bodies will observe in the initial phase and later participate in governance workflows. The organizers plan to release a white paper covering research, protocol design, and testing results, and gradually open-source the underlying technology. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority plans to prepare the Hong Kong banking sector to fully address quantum security risks by 2030, while a report from the Bank for International Settlements published in 2025 suggests that financial institutions should migrate to quantum-resistant systems in phases.

Justin Drake posted on the X platform that Ethereum L1 will no longer use the SNARK-friendly hash function Poseidon, which has dominated since 2019, and will instead turn to traditional hash functions such as SHA2 or BLAKE2s.This adjustment is based on advancements in the field of SNARK design, shifting the focus from "SNARK-friendly hashing" to "hash-friendly SNARK." By aligning Boolean operations in traditional hashing with binary field native, the proof performance of traditional hashing in SNARK has reached 1 million per second, with an overhead of about 100 times.Research from Binius and Flock has driven relevant progress. The Ethereum Foundation's post-quantum team is advancing this route, with a roadmap that includes deploying production-level leanVM in 2027, and deploying in the consensus layer, execution layer, and data processing layer in 2028.Justin Drake also stated that the enhanced capabilities of AI in cryptanalysis have recently led to setbacks for the lattice-based scheme HAWK and the homomorphic scheme SQIsign, with hash-based schemes being used for post-quantum signatures on the blockchain. The trend of open-source automated research is also accelerating, with SNARK.fast achieving 1.8 million BLAKE3 proofs per second.

Vitalik Buterin stated that he has compared the 2023 Ethereum roadmap with the current Strawmap, and while there is still a high degree of overlap in the overall direction, some priorities and technical paths have been clearly adjusted. This includes elevating the priority of quantum security, downplaying VDF and certain EVM improvements, and replacing old designs with unified binary trees, PBT, new state types, and other solutions.He pointed out that the most significant change in the current Strawmap is the emergence of several new topics not included in the 2023 roadmap, reflecting a shift in the focus of Ethereum's development. These new focal points include: stronger native privacy support, aggressive scaling in a post-quantum context, streamlined specifications for formal verification, Blob and Gas futures, native Rollup, and a more open design space around the future form of EVM.Vitalik also emphasized that Ethereum's scaling approach is shifting from "broadly scaling all activities" to "designing more easily scalable dedicated mechanisms for specific high-load scenarios," and views STARK proofs and AI-accelerated formal verification as important foundations for the protocol's future. Overall, this update indicates that the Ethereum roadmap is evolving towards quantum security, privacy-first, censorship resistance, high performance, and more simplified protocol design.

Christopher Smith, founder of the blockchain startup Quantus, stated that the first quantum attack may manifest as a series of unexplained thefts of cryptocurrency wallets, rather than directly stealing the approximately $63 billion worth of dormant Bitcoin expected from Satoshi Nakamoto. He pointed out that sufficiently powerful quantum computers could derive private keys from public keys exposed on the blockchain, allowing attackers to transfer funds without needing to breach wallets, devices, or internal systems of exchanges.In theft incidents at highly secure institutions, the only forensic evidence may be the absence of intrusion traces. Smith indicated that the initial targets of quantum attacks could be military systems and national secrets; in the blockchain space, the minting keys of stablecoin issuer Tether may be of greater value. Attackers could mint tokens out of thin air through managed wallets and sell them off before the issuer responds. Google has accelerated its post-quantum migration timeline to 2029; Smith believes the probability of quantum computers breaking modern cryptography around 2028 is "50-50." Relevant blockchains have begun migrating to post-quantum signatures.

Starknet announced that it has completed the quantum-resistant signature transfer test, where a wallet account using a quantum-resistant signature mechanism completed a real transfer on the Starknet mainnet, with a transaction fee of about 6 cents, and can be queried through the block explorer. This account is currently an experimental, unaudited version, mainly used for research testing. StarkWare stated that this transfer benefits from the design of the Starknet account model.Unlike most blockchains that fix the signature algorithm at the protocol layer, each account on Starknet is a smart contract that can autonomously define the accepted signature schemes, allowing users to upgrade their wallets from traditional elliptic curve signatures to quantum-resistant signatures without hard forks, asset migrations, or changing addresses. StarkWare pointed out that most blockchains face quantum computing risks because wallet signatures and underlying verification systems rely on elliptic curve cryptography. Once large-scale quantum computers appear, running Shor's algorithm could potentially break the related encryption systems. Currently, the Starknet ecosystem supports a quantum-resistant signature scheme based on Falcon-512, which is part of the NIST post-quantum cryptography standardization process, with relevant implementations promoted by ecosystem teams and organizations such as OpenZeppelin.

Former hedge fund manager and CNBC host Jim Cramer stated that due to concerns about quantum computing threatening Bitcoin's security, he plans to sell all of his BTC holdings. His statement stems from an interview with IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna, who said that investors should be wary of the challenges quantum computing may pose to modern cryptography in the next 3 to 4 years. Cramer believes that quantum computing could threaten the Bitcoin network in a similar timeframe. However, no one has independently confirmed how much BTC he holds or whether he has completed the sale.After his statement, Bitcoin continued to trade normally around $63,764, with some market participants viewing his comments as a "reverse Cramer" signal. Bitcoin uses the ECDSA signature mechanism based on the secp256k1 curve, and theoretically, a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could use Shor's algorithm to derive the private key from the public key. The risk is mainly concentrated on addresses with exposed public keys, including reused addresses, early wallet formats, and the brief time window after a transaction is broadcast but not yet confirmed. Researchers estimate that about 6 to 7 million BTC, accounting for approximately 30% of the supply, may fall into this category. Google Quantum AI estimated in March this year that breaking the relevant cryptographic mechanisms could require fewer than 500,000 physical qubits, reducing the previous estimate by about 20 times. However, current quantum systems typically only have hundreds to thousands of physical qubits, with even fewer logical qubits that have higher reliability. Most researchers expect that truly capable quantum computers for cryptographic breaking may not appear until the 2030s or even 2040s, making Cramer's 3-year prediction significantly earlier than most technological expectations.

According to BBX data, global listed companies disclosed the latest real accounts on crypto asset portfolio adjustments, liquidation stop-losses, and strategic positions over the weekend. The core dynamics are as follows:Trump Media transfers 2,628 BTC at a huge loss to the exchange: Trump Media (NASDAQ: $DJT) transferred its 2,628 BTC (worth approximately $165 million) to the Crypto.com exchange on Saturday (August 1), with market expectations that it will further liquidate. The company purchased 11,542 BTC at an average price of $118,529 last year and has sold a total of 7,281 BTC this year (average price of about $74,860), realizing a loss of $318 million; it currently holds 4,261 BTC (with an unrealized loss of $237 million), bringing the total cumulative loss/unrealized loss to as high as $555 million.Quantum Solutions sells 1,000 ETH to fund AI data center: The Tokyo Stock Exchange listed company Quantum Solutions (TYO: 2338) sold 1,000 ETH at a price of $1,903 each on July 30, raising $1.9 million to fund its AI data center business, expecting to recognize a loss of about $100,000. Together with the 904 ETH sold in June, the company's holdings have decreased by 29% to 4,764.8 ETH. The board has raised the sale limit from 1,875 ETH to 4,375 ETH, and if the limit is reached, it will dispose of about 66% of its initial holdings.Japanese listed company Eole purchases HYPE to create a crypto bank: Japanese listed company Eole disclosed that it bought 1,078.25 HYPE (average price of $57.15, worth about $66,000) on July 28. The company plans to increase its total investment in HYPE to $611,000 through multiple purchases by the end of August and will hold it as a strategic treasury asset under the "Neo Crypto Bank" plan, alongside Bitcoin for the long term.

According to official news, OpenAI has released research results stating that its next-generation AI model Astra has made progress in the fields of mathematics and theoretical computer science, involving areas such as high-dimensional geometry, coding theory, group theory, quantum complexity, post-quantum cryptography, and extremal combinatorial mathematics. The 10 published results include: the high-dimensional sphere packing problem, binary and spherical coding problems, non-sofic group problems, Connes rigidity conjecture, arithmetic circuit complexity problems, quantum parallel repetition problems, nearest vector problems, Ehrhart volume conjecture, multi-color Ramsey number problems, and extremal graph theory conjectures.It is reported that these results were derived using an internal version of the Astra model, with the computational cost of finding solutions amounting to approximately $2000 (calculated based on Sol API prices).Subsequently, human researchers used the same model to assist in compiling the results into a paper and generated verifiable proof certificates through the Lean formal proof system.

According to Forbes, Vaulted CEO David McAlvany stated that he believes Bitcoin could disappear within the next four years due to quantum computing. He mentioned that once quantum computers can quickly solve the mathematical problems protecting Bitcoin private keys, "that will be the end of Bitcoin."However, McAlvany later admitted that he cannot determine whether the relevant breakthrough will occur in four years, five years, or two months. As of mid-2026, there are no quantum computers capable of cracking Bitcoin's encryption algorithms. His viewpoint is mainly based on concerns about the future development speed of quantum computing, rather than on already occurred security events.Galaxy Digital estimates that approximately 7 million BTC addresses have exposed public keys on-chain, worth about $470 billion; Glassnode's estimate is 6.04 million, accounting for 30.2% of the Bitcoin supply. Exposing public keys does not equate to assets being stolen; only when quantum computers can reverse-engineer private keys from public keys might these addresses face actual theft risks.McAlvany also compared Bitcoin to gold and questioned whether Bitcoin could exist for 5,000 years. He expressed relative confidence that gold will still exist by then, but Bitcoin "might exist, or it might not."Bitcoin developers currently have differing opinions on solutions. BIP-360 proposes to add quantum-resistant address types; BIP-361 plans to phase out support for old-style signatures, with assets that do not migrate in time potentially being permanently frozen, including those believed to belong to Satoshi Nakamoto. Supporters argue that freezing assets is better than allowing quantum attackers to steal and sell them, while critics view it as confiscation.Companies like BOLTS Technologies and American Fortress are also developing cross-chain quantum-resistant solutions. American Fortress completed an $8 million seed round in May and claims its technology can protect assets without requiring users to migrate addresses, but the relevant technical papers have not yet been published, and the design has not undergone public auditing.

According to BBX data, yesterday global listed companies disclosed the latest real announcements regarding adjustments in cryptocurrency assets and business payment applications, with the following core dynamics:Hyperscale Data monetizes 100 BTC to build an AI data center: U.S. listed company Hyperscale Data, Inc. (NYSE American: $GPUS) announced the sale of 100 bitcoins to fund the construction of its AI data center located in Michigan. The company's CEO William Horne stated that this move is "converting one balance sheet asset into another," and clarified that the company's underlying belief in bitcoin has not changed.Quantum Solutions sells 1,000 ETH to inject into AIDC business: Japanese listed company Quantum Solutions announced that it sold 1,000 ETH through its merged subsidiary GPT Pals Studio Limited (GPT) for $1.9 million (approximately 311 million yen). The proceeds from the sale will be fully invested in the expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure (AIDC) and data center business.Vida Global seamlessly accesses bitcoin payroll through the Lightning Network: U.S. listed company Vida Global (NYSE American: $VIDA) announced the adoption of Voltage Credit to pay its global team members in bitcoin via the Lightning Network. This mechanism utilizes a revolving credit line to instantly issue bitcoin and repays the balance in U.S. dollars at the end of each month, similar to processing standard vendor invoices, allowing the company to establish a cryptocurrency payroll settlement channel without directly holding a bitcoin wallet or reflecting cryptocurrency assets on its balance sheet.

According to Nadal News, the Japanese listed company Quantum Solutions announced the sale of 1,000 ETH for $1.9 million (approximately 311 million yen) from its subsidiary GPT Pals Studio Limited (GPT). The proceeds from this sale will be used for its artificial intelligence infrastructure (AIDC) business, which includes artificial intelligence data centers.Since the fall of 2025, Quantum Solutions has been actively increasing its ETH holdings. As of June 4, 2026, its ETH holdings have reached 6,668.8, making it the company with the largest ETH holdings among Japanese listed companies. The company began selling ETH in June. This is their second sale, with a total of 1,904 ETH sold, reducing their holdings by approximately 29% from the peak to 4,764.8 ETH.

Anthropic announced that the Claude Mythos Preview model has made breakthroughs in cryptographic research, discovering improved attack methods against the post-quantum digital signature candidate HAWK. HAWK is a post-quantum signature candidate solicited by NIST to combat quantum computer attacks, which has already passed two rounds of expert review. However, Claude reduced the effective key strength of HAWK-256 from 2^64 to 2^38 in just 60 hours, significantly lowering the theoretical cost of cracking. HAWK has not yet been deployed in practice, and this attack currently does not affect any production systems.Claude also discovered an improved attack against 7-round AES, achieving a speed increase of 200 to 800 times. During the research process, Claude independently completed literature reviews, mathematical reasoning, and experimental validation with limited guidance from cryptographers. The HAWK attack took about 60 hours and had an API cost of approximately $100,000; the AES attack was completed independently by Claude, which generated about 1 billion tokens before proposing core innovative ideas. Anthropic researchers then spent hundreds of hours validating the results. Anthropic stated that AI models can now help identify significant flaws in cryptographic algorithms, and the cryptography community may face bottlenecks similar to those in the software vulnerability field—AI-generated research results far exceed human verification capabilities. Anthropic has collaborated with academic institutions to launch the CryptanalysisBench benchmark and coordinated disclosures with NIST authors and government partners. The research team has achieved preliminary results on algorithms such as LEA and Serpent-128. Anthropic warns that as AI capabilities improve, actual attacks against deployed systems may be discovered in the future, necessitating the establishment of response mechanisms in advance.