Network News
BERNSTEIN SAYS QUANTUM THREAT TO BITCOIN IS REAL BUT MANAGEABLE: Wall Street broker Bernstein said the rise of quantum computing poses a credible but manageable threat to Bitcoin and the broader crypto ecosystem, as recent advances shorten the timelines for potential attacks on modern crypto. Advances such as Google Quantum AI’s reported reduction in qubit requirements suggest that risk is no longer a decade-long, distant concern, the broker noted. Still, the company cautioned that scaling quantum systems to the level needed to break widely used encryption remains a complex and multi-step challenge. “Quantum should be seen as a medium-to-long-term system upgrade cycle rather than a risk,” analysts led by Gautam Chhugani said in Wednesday’s report. Quantum computing uses the principles of quantum mechanics rather than classical physics. Instead of binary bits, it relies on qubits that can exist in multiple states at once, a property known as superposition, allowing many possibilities to be processed simultaneously. Combined with entanglement, this allows quantum systems to solve certain problems, such as decryption, much more efficiently than classical computers. Quantum computers could potentially weaken cryptographic systems such as elliptic curve encryption, which underpins crypto wallets, by solving problems beyond the reach of classical machines. However, the report states that the threat extends to sectors from finance to defense and should be considered a manageable long-term risk rather than an existential risk for Bitcoin. — Will Canny Learn more.
ESPOYMENT EXPLOITS: DRIFT HACK REVEALS MORE COMPLEX OPERATIONS: When Drift revealed the details of his $270 million exploit, the most disturbing thing wasn’t the scale of the loss, but rather how it happened. According to the team behind the protocol, the attack was not a smart contract bug or clever code manipulation. It was a six-month campaign involving fake identities, in-person meetings in multiple countries, and carefully cultivated trust. The attackers, apparently from North Korea, not only discovered a vulnerability in the system. They have become an integral part of it. This new threat now imposes a broader assessment on the scale of decentralized finance. For years, the industry treated security as a technical problem, something that could be solved through audits, formal verification, and better code. But the Drift incident suggests something much more complex: The real vulnerabilities might lie outside the codebase entirely. Alexander Urbelis, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at ENS Labs, says the framework itself is already outdated. “We need to stop calling these ‘hacks’ and start calling them what they are: intelligence operations,” Urbelis told CoinDesk. “The people who showed up at conferences, who met in person with Drift contributors in several countries, who put down a million dollars of their own money to build their credibility: that’s craft. That’s the kind of thing you’d expect from a file manager, not a hacker.” If this characterization holds, then Drift represents a new playbook: a model in which attackers behave less like opportunistic hackers and more like patient operators who integrate socially before acting on-chain. — Margaux Nijkerk Learn more.
NEW ADVERTISING FROM THE SOLANA FOUNDATION “DON’T WASTE TIME ON CRYPTO”: The Solana Foundation is taking a deliberately contrarian approach to crypto marketing in San Francisco, launching a billboard campaign that says, “Don’t waste time on crypto.” At first glance, the message may seem a bit confusing, as one crypto foundation says not to waste time with crypto. But according to the Solana Foundation, this is a bullish bet on the future of crypto that intersects with agentic AI. Essentially, this means that instead of wasting your time executing cryptocurrency transactions, which can be tedious and time-consuming, let your AI agents do the heavy lifting. The ad directs passersby to the x402 account on — Margaux Nijkerk Learn more.
NEW ALCHEMY AI TOOL: Alchemy, a cryptocurrency infrastructure provider used by many blockchain and industry companies, has released a new tool, AgentPay, that allows different AI payment systems, from companies like Coinbase, Stripe, Visa, Mastercard and Circle, to work together. The new tool solves the problem that agent payment systems currently coming online are not “interoperable” or, in other words, do not talk to each other, meaning that a merchant who wants AI agents as clients must create a separate integration for each protocol. “This is not sustainable, and it will only become more fragmented as new systems are released,” Guillaume Poncin, CTO of Alchemy, said in an email. “AgentPay fixes this problem. A merchant registers their existing API with us, we give them a new endpoint, and any agent on any supported protocol can pay them through that.” Alchemy is widely considered the “AWS of Web3” because it provides the infrastructure, developer tools, and node services needed to build blockchain applications. AgentPay promises integration for each protocol, citing x402, MPP, A2P or L402. “We sit in the middle as the translation layer, where AgentPay routes the instructions, and Alchemy never touches the funds,” Poncin said. — Ian Allison Learn more.
In Other news
- Adam Back has denied claims he is Satoshi Nakamoto after a New York Times article claimed the British cryptographer was the strongest candidate yet for pseudonymous Bitcoin creator. In an article on “I am not satoshi,” Back wrote. He said he had “early focused on the positive societal implications of cryptography, online privacy and electronic money”, and that his work from around 1992, including discussions on the cypherpunks mailing list, led to Hashcash and other ideas that were later carried over into Bitcoin. Back, said New York Times reporter John Carreyrou, had found “many interesting analogues of Bitcoin in early attempts to create decentralized cash,” adding that early researchers explored concepts such as peer-to-peer systems, proof of work and routing models that resembled prototypes for Bitcoin. — Helene Braun Learn more.
- Wall Street investment bank JPMorgan (JPM) said the pace of capital flows into digital assets slowed significantly in the first quarter of 2026, with total inflows estimated at around $11 billion. That implies an annualized rate of about $44 billion, or about a third of the pace seen in 2025, according to the report released last week. “Investor flows, both retail and institutional, have been weak to negative year-to-date, with the majority of digital asset flow in Q1 2026 coming from Strategy (MSTR) bitcoin purchases and concentrated crypto-VC funding,” wrote analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou. Crypto markets experienced a volatile and overall negative first quarter, with prices and market value falling sharply amid risk aversion. The total crypto market cap fell around 20% during the period, while bitcoin fell around 23% and ether (ETH) fell over 30%, marking one of the weakest first quarter performances in years. The sell-off was driven by macroeconomic and geopolitical pressures, triggering selloffs and a broad pullback in risk assets, with altcoins hit even harder. — Will Canny Learn more.
Regulation and policy
- Polymarket has removed a betting market linked to the rescue of U.S. military personnel in Iran, after intense backlash and criticism from lawmakers over the weekend. The market allowed users to bet on when the United States would confirm the rescue of two airmen after an F-15E fighter jet was shot down over Iran. The crew members have since been rescued. Rep. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat, criticized the listing in an article on X, calling it “disgusting” and arguing that it reduced a military rescue effort to a financial exchange. Moulton has taken a hard line on prediction markets, recently banning his team from using platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi over concerns that financial incentives could influence policy decisions. A Polymarket spokesperson said the listing did not meet its integrity standards and the contract was removed shortly after it appeared. The company added that it is reviewing how the market has adopted internal safeguards. — Francesco Rodrigues Learn more.
- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. of the United States formally proposed its approach to stablecoin issuers as one of the federal financial regulators required to write and oversee rules under last year’s Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for American Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. The FDIC’s proposal — intended to closely align with what its sister banking agency, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, proposed in February — will be open for a 60-day public comment period on the agency’s lengthy list of 144 questions posed Tuesday. The FDIC’s job is to police America’s depository institutions, and under the GENIUS Act, its role is to regulate those institutions issuing stablecoins from their subsidiaries. To that end, it imposed capital, liquidity, and custody standards on these companies, although the details won’t be set in stone until the rule is finalized — which likely won’t be until the agency spends additional months reviewing comments and drafting the final text. This is the banking agency’s second GENIUS Act proposal following its December presentation on the issuer application process. As required by law, stablecoins will not benefit from the deposit insurance that banks maintain on traditional bank accounts, according to the proposal. — Jesse Hamilton Learn more.
Calendar
- April 15-16, 2026: Paris Blockchain Week, Paris
- May 5-7, 2026: Consensus, Miami
- September 29-October 1, 2026: Korean Blockchain Week, Seoul
- October 7 and 8, 2026: Token2049, Singapore
- November 3-6, 2026: Devcon, Mumbai
- November 15-17, 2026: Solana Breakpoint, London
