Most of the crypto industry spent this week processing Google’s paper on how quantum computers could break blockchain encryption. One startup is asking a different question — whether quantum hardware can make blockchains better. Postquant Labs, which is building the world’s shared quantum computer, Quip.Network announced Wednesday the launch of what it calls the first…
Coinbase’s AI-focused payment protocol x402 is moving toward becoming an open, standardized infrastructure under the Linux Foundation, the non-profit hub for open-source software development. The move aims to create a community-governed ecosystem for high-frequency, micro transactions that legacy finance can’t efficiently handle. The protocol has formed an initial governing body, the x402 Foundation, that includes…
CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index. The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 1875.68, down 4.5% (-88.38) since 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday. None of the 20 assets are trading higher. Leaders: CRO (-2.5%) and BCH (-3.0%). Laggards: UNI (-7.7%) and SOL…
Crypto markets are stuck in a holding pattern as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East cloud an otherwise improving macro backdrop, according to crypto asset manager Grayscale. “The war in Iran overshadowed virtually all other market developments in March,” the Grayscale research team said in a Wednesday report. Before the conflict escalated, global growth appeared…
Bitcoin is trading choppily around $66,600, as the extended holiday weekend sidelines potential buyers and gives bears greater control over price action. With CME futures and ETF flows set to pause over Good Friday, the market is heading into a liquidity gap just as its most reliable source of support is already weakening. Bitcoin’s $65,000…
Elliptic said Thursday the $285 million Drift Protocol exploit, the largest this year, carries “multiple indicators” of North Korea’s state-sponsored DPRK hacker group involvement. The research firm pointed specifically to onchain behavior, laundering methodologies and network-level signals, all of which align with previous state-linked attacks. Drift Protocol, whose token has dropped over 40% to roughly…
In today’s newsletter, Paul Frost-Smith, CEO of Komainu, covers how institutional crypto is converging with traditional finance, but speed can introduce risk if legal and compliance layers aren’t aligned. Then, in “Ask an Expert,” Sam Boboev, from the “Fintech Wrap Up,” details the key coordination risks institutions must solve for. Beyond custody: why connectivity will…
The U.S. Department of Justice will be helmed by Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, President Donald Trump announced Thursday, after removing Attorney General Pam Bondi from the position. Blanche represented Trump in his criminal case in New York prior to Trump’s reelection as U.S. President in 2024. Trump named him deputy attorney general after…
Representatives of the crypto and banking industries are meeting with legislative staffers on Thursday and Friday to review revised compromise language on stablecoin yield provisions in the market structure bill, three people familiar with the plans told CoinDesk. Industry representatives first viewed the compromise language, spearheaded by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.),…
The attack on Drift Protocol was not a hack in the traditional sense. Nobody found a bug or cracked a private key. There wasn’t a flash loan exploit or manipulated oracle either. Instead, an attacker used a legitimate Solana feature, ‘durable nonces,’ to trick Drift’s security council into pre-approving transactions that would be executed weeks…
