The European Central Bank has taken a concrete step to reduce the technical barriers surrounding a potential digital euro by signing agreements with three European standards bodies to reuse existing open payment standards for euro-area transactions. The move is intended to ease integration for banks, merchants and payment service providers as the bloc contemplates a broad roll-out of central bank digital money.

According to the ECB, the deals with the European Card Payment Cooperation, Nexo standards and the Berlin Group will enable the reuse of established open standards for several core capabilities. These include contactless tap-to-pay payments, merchant-to-payment-provider interfaces and alias-based payments—such as transactions initiated with a phone number rather than a bank account. The intention is to leverage widely adopted, interoperable specifications rather than rely on bespoke, bank- or vendor-specific solutions.

The ECB underscored that using open standards would help minimize adoption costs and support a uniform digital euro user experience across the euro area. However, it stressed that the agreements are a cost-mitigation step rather than a guarantee of a low-cost rollout, noting that broader implementation costs remain a central policy and practical consideration for banks and payment players.

In parallel with the standards push, Reuters reported an ECB analysis estimating that the digital euro could cost EU banks between €4 billion and €6 billion over four years. The ECB has previously signaled that the total cost of implementation is a complex mix of technical upgrades, staffing, compliance processes and ongoing operational considerations. The new agreements address only one leg of that broader cost equation—the choice and harmonization of technical interfaces.

The actions signal the ECB’s intent to reduce one of the primary technical hurdles to mass adoption: achieving interoperable, open-standards-based infrastructure across a fragmented payments landscape that is currently dominated by proprietary protocols and card schemes. By aligning standards now, the central bank aims to smooth the path for banks, merchants and PSPs should a digital euro be launched in the future.

The standards collaboration is part of a broader effort to prepare Europe’s payments infrastructure for the digital euro’s potential deployment. The ECB has indicated that a universal open standard ecosystem remains lacking in Europe, with much of the current ecosystem still tied to proprietary technologies owned by international card schemes and global digital wallet operators. The ECB’s initiative seeks to establish a common technical layer ahead of any pilot or launch, reducing the risk of later fragmentation.

Key takeaways

• The ECB has formalized cooperation with three European standards bodies to reuse open payment standards for the digital euro, targeting key capabilities like contactless payments, merchant-to-provider connectivity and alias-based transactions.
• The move is framed as a cost-mitigation measure intended to lower integration costs for banks, merchants and PSPs, though it does not guarantee low overall implementation costs.
• Regulatory and cost considerations remain central, with ongoing assessments of the total financial burden on EU banks and the broader compliance ecosystem required for any potential issuance.
• A digital euro pilot is planned, with a 12-month duration starting in the second half of 2027, involving a limited set of payment service providers and merchants, under Eurosystem oversight.
• Technical standards are expected to be announced by summer, reflecting the ECB’s emphasis on early coordination among market participants and standardization bodies to support a coherent rollout if pursued.

Operational scope and regulatory context: harmonizing the digital euro toolkit

The agreements with the European Card Payment Cooperation, Nexo standards and the Berlin Group focus on reusing familiar, cross-market specifications to govern essential digital euro functions. In practice, this means enabling a smoother experience for end users—whether they pay at a merchant, tap a card or mobile device, or initiate a payment from alias-based identifiers like phone numbers—without forcing banks to rebuild disparate systems from scratch. For policymakers, the emphasis on interoperable standards aligns with regulatory objectives to maintain financial stability, support cross-border payments and ensure robust AML/KYC controls as new forms of central bank money enter the ecosystem.

Despite the optimism around open standards, the ECB’s stance remains cautious. While harmonization can reduce upfront capital expenditure and ongoing integration challenges, the total cost of a potential digital euro program extends well beyond interfaces. Banks would still need to update core processing systems, risk controls, fraud prevention measures, settlement capabilities, data protection protocols and compliance workflows to accommodate a central bank digital currency at scale. The interplay between technical interoperability and regulatory compliance—especially around privacy, data residency and cross-border flows—will shape the ultimate feasibility and timeline of any market rollout.

Regulatory and cost implications for banks and payment ecosystems

From a regulatory perspective, the push to standardize interfaces interacts with broader EU policy frameworks governing payments, digital finance and market infrastructure. The digital euro’s design and governance sit at the intersection of Eurosystem oversight and EU financial services law, with potential implications for licensing, supervision and cross-border settlement arrangements. While MiCA covers crypto assets and related activities, the digital euro itself remains national sovereign money, and its deployment would be subject to the Eurosystem’s governance. Nonetheless, the surrounding regulatory architecture will influence how payment institutions plan, procure and operate if a digital euro moves from concept to a defined program.

The cost dimension remains a central point of attention for banks and PSPs. Reuters’ reporting of an €4–6 billion potential hitting banks over four years illustrates the scale of investment anticipated in systems, processes and talent. Even with a shared standards approach, institutions will face ongoing costs associated with regulatory compliance, operational resilience, cybersecurity, third-party risk management and customer due diligence. The ECB has repeatedly described the expected pilot as a learning phase to validate interoperability, security and user experience, rather than a foregone conclusion of a wholesale market launch.

For lenders and payment firms, the cost and regulatory calculus will influence decisions about timing, participation and the depth of integration with existing networks. Institutions will need to weigh the benefits of a more seamless, open-standard digital euro against the resource commitments required to modernize infrastructure, ensure compatibility with existing payment rails and maintain strict compliance controls. The EU’s ongoing emphasis on openness, transparency and supervision will shape not only technology choices but also licensing and operating models as banks navigate cross-border operations and potential future harmonization efforts across member states.

Pilot planning, governance and timeline: preparing for a measured test of the architecture

Beyond standardization, the ECB is actively laying the groundwork for a controlled digital euro pilot. The central bank has begun recruiting payment service providers to participate in a 12-month trial slated to start in the second half of 2027. The pilot will involve a limited cohort of PSPs, a restricted set of merchants and Eurosystem staff, with PSPs playing a central role in digital euro distribution. The goal is to test the operational viability of the chosen technical framework, assess the readiness of payment rails and ensure that risk, fraud prevention and privacy controls are robust before any broader deployment.

ECB officials have signaled that the technical standards that will govern the pilot are expected to be announced by the summer. This timeline underscores a deliberate approach: coordinate with standards bodies early, align market participants’ capabilities, and create a governance environment in which lessons from the pilot can inform any potential scaling. The effort is not only about technology but also about regulatory alignment, governance, data stewardship and the creation of clear lines of accountability for participating institutions.

For observers and participants, the pilot represents a critical inflection point. It provides a structured setting to evaluate interoperability across payment terminals, digital wallets, and merchant interfaces while exploring how alias-based and contactless flows perform under real-world conditions. From a compliance perspective, the pilot will offer a laboratory to refine AML/KYC controls, data protection measures and cross-border settlement arrangements within a controlled Eurosystem framework.

Closing perspective

As Europe advances its preparations for a potential digital euro, the emphasis on reusable open standards marks a meaningful shift toward interoperability-driven implementation. While the cost picture remains uncertain and contingent on the scale of adoption and regulatory requirements, the current path aims to reduce one of the clearest technical barriers to a future rollout. The coming months will be pivotal as the ECB outlines key technical standards, confirms pilot participation, and clarifies how these standards will translate into a coherent, supervised payments ecosystem across the euro area.

Key Highlights

• Treasury bill introduces comprehensive framework for digital asset oversight

• Mandatory declaration requirements for cryptocurrency holders above threshold

• Border enforcement powers expanded to include digital asset searches

• Penalties reach one million rand and five-year imprisonment for violations

• Capital flow framework extended to encompass cryptocurrency transactions

The National Treasury of South Africa has released draft legislation designed to bring cryptocurrency under comprehensive regulatory oversight. The proposed bill establishes mandatory reporting requirements and introduces enhanced enforcement mechanisms for digital assets. This legislative move represents a fundamental transformation in the country’s approach to cryptocurrency governance and financial monitoring.

Treasury Bill Integrates Digital Assets Into Capital Controls

The National Treasury has unveiled draft regulations that position cryptocurrency within South Africa’s existing capital flow management system. Under these proposed rules, individuals holding digital assets exceeding specified limits must formally declare their holdings to authorities. The framework also requires specific transactions to be processed through approved intermediaries or obtain regulatory clearance beforehand.

According to the draft provisions, asset holders will have a 30-day period to comply with declaration obligations once the threshold is met. The legislation further stipulates that digital assets purchased for designated purposes must be liquidated if those objectives are not fulfilled. This mechanism creates a direct connection between cryptocurrency ownership and stated financial objectives.

The legislative initiative seeks to modernize regulations by replacing the Exchange Control Regulations established in 1961. This proposal demonstrates increasing governmental focus on capital mobility and financial transparency. Furthermore, the framework integrates digital currencies into established financial disclosure protocols.

Enhanced Border Security and Compliance Mechanisms

The proposed legislation significantly expands crypto regulation enforcement capabilities at border crossings and throughout the financial infrastructure. Customs officials would receive authorization to conduct searches for undeclared cryptocurrency holdings when individuals cross international boundaries. Travelers may be required to provide access information related to their digital asset portfolios.

The bill criminalizes unauthorized international transfers of cryptocurrency under the broadened regulatory framework. It establishes mandatory disclosure requirements for digital assets when entering or exiting South African territory. These provisions enable authorities to maintain closer surveillance over both incoming and outgoing asset movements.

Non-compliance with the regulatory framework carries substantial consequences, including monetary penalties reaching one million rand and potential incarceration for up to five years. These sanctions specifically address violations and unauthorized asset transfers. Consequently, enforcement mechanisms constitute a fundamental component of this policy transformation.

Regulatory Evolution and Strategic Considerations

South Africa has previously established legal recognition for digital assets within its financial regulations, forming the foundation for current policy developments. The Financial Sector Conduct Authority designated cryptocurrency as a financial product in 2022. The newly proposed legislation expands regulatory reach from service providers to individual asset holders themselves.

This initiative emerges amid increasing cryptocurrency adoption throughout the African continent and growing concerns regarding financial system stability. It also addresses potential risks associated with stablecoins and capital flight scenarios. The Treasury aims to strengthen regulatory frameworks to preserve monetary policy effectiveness.

The public consultation process continues, though submission deadlines appear inconsistent across official documents. Stakeholder input during this comment period will shape the final regulatory structure. Ultimately, the finalized provisions will determine the extent to which authorities incorporate digital assets into national financial supervision frameworks.

EIP‑8182 would add a shared shielded pool and ZK precompile to make private ETH and ERC‑20 transfers a native Ethereum feature, aligned with its 2026 privacy roadmap.

Ethereum (ETH) is finally putting protocol‑level privacy on the table. Tom Lehman has released draft EIP‑8182, “Private ETH and ERC‑20 Transfers,” which would embed a shared shielded pool and ZK proof verification into the base chain so that private transfers become a first‑class feature rather than an opt‑in dApp add‑on. Lehman argues that Ethereum itself should “provide a shared privacy layer” to break the current impasse of small, siloed anonymity sets and incompatible trust assumptions across privacy apps.

At the core of EIP‑8182 is a protocol‑managed system contract deployed at a fixed address, in the style of EIP‑4788. This contract would hold all state for a global shielded pool — including the note‑commitment tree, nullifier set, user and delivery‑key registries, and an authorization policy registry — and would have no proxy, no admin function, and no on‑chain upgrade mechanism, meaning it can only change through Ethereum hard forks. In parallel, the proposal adds a ZK proof‑verification precompile so clients can efficiently verify private transfer proofs at the protocol layer.

Lehman’s design tries to reconcile privacy with Ethereum’s existing UX. Users still identify recipients by standard Ethereum address or ENS name, but the actual “notes” inside the shielded pool bind to hidden owner identifiers fetched from a registry for those addresses. That allows wallets to integrate once and let users send private payments to any address, instead of picking between incompatible privacy pools that each bootstrap their own anonymity set. The EIP also specifies support for atomic flows — deposit into the shielded pool, interact with a public contract, and re‑shield the result — enabling what the draft calls “de‑sensitization → interaction → re‑privatization” in a single sequence.

Crucially, the proposal is explicit about what it does not solve. End‑to‑end privacy still requires mempool encryption, network‑layer anonymity, and wallet‑side UX changes, all of which sit outside EIP‑8182’s scope. But the move aligns with Ethereum’s broader 2026 roadmap, which AmbCrypto reports puts “institutional privacy front and center” ahead of an expected tokenization boom, with Foundation leaders naming faster finality and compliant privacy as key priorities.

If EIP‑8182 advances, it will also intersect directly with regulatory debates sparked by protocols like Privacy Pools, which use ZK proofs to separate clean funds from tainted ones without revealing full transaction histories. A protocol‑native privacy layer built around shared pools and provable provenance could give both DeFi and future real‑world‑asset platforms a way to offer credible privacy guarantees while still satisfying compliance and audit requirements — a balance that will matter more as institutional capital and AI‑driven agents increasingly transact on Ethereum.

Luck.io, a casino running on Solana’s blockchain that spent 2025 paying crypto influencers up to $500,000 per month, announced today that it’s shutting down. The team asked players to please withdraw their funds.

In its glowing self-review and autobiographical eulogy, the project praised the growth that preceded its demise.

“What started as a concept soon became the largest and fastest growing on-chain casino,” a spokesperson beamed, concluding that “the concept works” somehow, and that its technology should “find a new home in the near future.”

A year ago, the enterprise ran one of the loudest marketing budgets for Solana wagering. DL News reported in June 2025 that Luck.io was paying key opinion leaders up to half a million dollars per month. 

Ansem, FaZe Banks, and Sol Jakey were among the casino’s sponsors and spent the next year pitching it to their millions of followers.

Ripple’s latest market overview confirms that US spot XRP ETFs have accumulated $1.53 billion in assets under management and 773 million XRP in custody, with Goldman Sachs leading all institutional holders through a $153.8 million position spread across four separate funds.

Ripple’s April 17 institutional insights report confirms that US spot XRP ETFs have accumulated $1.53 billion in assets under management and 773 million XRP tokens in custody, less than six months after the first product launched in November 2025. Yahoo Finance reported that Goldman Sachs disclosed a $153.8 million position across spot XRP ETFs through its Q4 2025 13F filing, distributed across Bitwise’s XRP ETF at approximately $40 million, Franklin Templeton’s XRPZ at $38.5 million, Grayscale’s GXRP at $38 million, and 21Shares’ TOXR at $36 million.

XRP ETF Institutional Holders Led by Goldman’s Deliberately Diversified Stake

Goldman did not concentrate its XRP ETF position in a single product. The allocation is spread across four different issuers, a construction that Ripple’s report describes as reflecting a deliberate, long-duration institutional strategy rather than a tactical trading position. Of the top 30 institutional holders collectively controlling just over $211 million in XRP ETF exposure, Goldman accounts for roughly 73% of that total. As crypto.news reported, Bloomberg analysts have noted that Goldman’s position likely reflects trading desk facilitation activity rather than a direct directional bet on XRP, a distinction that matters when assessing whether the disclosure signals genuine institutional conviction or structural product demand. The Q1 2026 13F filing, due in May, will reveal whether the bank held the position through XRP’s price decline from its January peak above $2.40 to the current range near $1.44.

The Retail Gap That Still Defines the XRP ETF Market

Despite the Goldman headline, Ripple’s own data shows that 84% of domestic XRP ETF assets are held by retail investors, a figure that stands in sharp contrast to Solana ETF products where institutional participation runs at 48.8%. As crypto.news documented, XRP ETFs pulled in $55.39 million in the strongest week of 2026, their best single-week performance on record, and the funds have not recorded a single outflow day since April 9. That retail-driven demand has sustained the inflow streak, but it also means the institutional adoption story is at an earlier stage than the Goldman headline alone suggests. A Coinbase and EY-Parthenon survey of 351 institutional investors found that 25% plan to add XRP to their portfolios in 2026, with 65% citing regulatory clarity as the condition holding them back.

What the CLARITY Act Means for the Next Phase

The passage of the CLARITY Act would convert that stated institutional intent into actionable capital allocation. As crypto.news tracked, Goldman’s February 2026 disclosure was the first time the bank placed XRP alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana in its structured product holdings, a threshold moment that Ripple described as cementing XRP’s position in the institutional allocation conversation. The SEC and CFTC jointly classified XRP as a digital commodity in March 2026, and if the CLARITY Act formalizes that classification into law, the 65% of institutional investors currently waiting for regulatory clarity would have the legal framework to move from intent to deployment.

Ripple noted that cumulative XRP ETF inflows crossed $1 billion by December 16, 2025 and surpassed $1.5 billion by early March 2026, a pace it described as among the fastest institutional adoption curves for any digital asset in regulated ETF history.

The online gambling ecosystem depends on three interconnected business types — casino operators who run the platforms, sportsbook brands who set the odds and gambling affiliates who connect players with both. Each one needs media visibility to succeed. Each one struggles to get it. Kooc Media, a PR distribution agency that has served the gambling and crypto industries since 2017, has launched a media distribution service that addresses all three at once.

The service gives casino brands, sportsbook operators and affiliate businesses guaranteed press coverage on established news publications, professional editorial support, global newswire distribution and transparent campaign reporting. It is the first time a single service has been designed to cover the full range of businesses that make the online gambling industry work.

A Shared Frustration Across the Industry

Spend enough time in online gambling marketing circles and a pattern becomes obvious. Whether someone runs an online casino, manages a sportsbook or owns an affiliate network, the frustration with PR is identical. They know press coverage would help their business. They have tried to get it. The results were either nonexistent or so poor that the entire exercise felt like a waste of money.

Casino operators have been told by agency after agency that gambling falls outside their acceptable client categories. Sportsbook brands have heard the same, sometimes with the added insult of being passed over during the exact sporting events when coverage would matter most. Affiliate businesses — despite producing editorial content as their core product — have found it almost impossible to secure press coverage that builds their own brand rather than the operators they promote.

The common denominator is an industry that generates enormous revenue but receives almost no attention from the mainstream media ecosystem. Publications that routinely cover fintech, gaming technology and digital entertainment draw a line at gambling. PR agencies that proudly serve controversial sectors in other industries refuse to touch betting or casino clients.

Kooc Media exists specifically because of this gap. The agency has provided gambling PR and crypto PR as core services since its founding and has built the distribution infrastructure needed to deliver results where other agencies consistently fail.

“Casino operators, sportsbooks and affiliates are three sides of the same industry,” said Michelle De Gouveia, spokesperson for Kooc Media. “They all need media distribution that actually works. We have built one service that handles all three.”

The Distribution Infrastructure

Kooc Media’s service runs on a combination of owned media and partner distribution that eliminates the uncertainty of traditional PR.

The agency owns and operates multiple established news websites including Blockonomi, CoinCentral, MoneyCheck, Parameter, Beanstalk and Computing. These publications have built strong domain authority and consistent readerships across finance, technology, cryptocurrency and iGaming through years of editorial output. Because Kooc Media controls these sites, every placement booked through the service is published. There is no editorial pitch. No third-party gatekeeper. No possibility of paying for coverage that never materialises.

Beyond the owned network, press releases are distributed through a partner system reaching hundreds of additional media outlets and thousands of syndication channels across multiple countries and content categories. Premium distribution packages extend reach to major international platforms including Business Insider, Bloomberg, Benzinga, MarketWatch and USA Today.

Content is produced by the agency’s in-house editorial team when clients need writing support. The writers understand the specific language, regulatory sensitivities and audience expectations of the casino, sportsbook and affiliate sectors. Clients who prefer to provide their own material can do so and use Kooc Media purely for placement and distribution.

The full cycle operates at the speed the gambling industry demands. Briefing to live publication can happen within a single day. After distribution completes, a detailed report containing live links to every published article is delivered to the client.

What Media Distribution Does for Casino Brands

The online casino market is saturated with operators competing for the same players through increasingly similar means. Bonus offers, game libraries, loyalty programmes and website designs have converged to a point where many casinos are virtually interchangeable from a player’s perspective.

Press coverage provides differentiation that product alone cannot. A casino brand covered by independent news publications carries a perception of legitimacy and establishment that uncovered competitors lack. Players searching for a new casino encounter that coverage during their research and factor it into their decision. The brand feels safer. The signup feels less risky. The deposit happens more readily.

Over time, the SEO value compounds. Each article on a strong domain generates a backlink that improves the casino’s organic search positioning. For brands targeting terms like “best online casino,” “new casino sites,” “top casino bonuses” or “online slots,” those accumulated backlinks provide a lasting competitive advantage in search rankings.

What Media Distribution Does for Sportsbook Brands

Sportsbooks face a unique combination of pressure. They need to build long-term brand trust while simultaneously capitalising on short-term windows of opportunity around sporting events. A sportsbook that is invisible during a major football tournament or boxing event misses the exact moment when potential bettors are most actively searching for a platform.

Kooc Media’s same-day distribution capability allows sportsbook brands to time PR campaigns precisely around these events. A press release can go live on the morning of a major match day, putting the sportsbook’s name in front of audiences when interest is at its peak.

Beyond event-driven campaigns, sportsbooks accumulate the same trust and search benefits as casino brands. Bettors research operators before committing funds. Coverage on trusted publications reduces hesitation. Backlinks from those publications help sportsbooks compete for terms like “best sportsbook,” “sports betting sites,” “football betting platform,” “live betting odds” and “online betting offers.”

For sportsbooks entering newly regulated markets, press coverage provides immediate positioning. A brand that arrives with published coverage across recognised publications starts ahead of competitors who enter with no media presence at all.

What Media Distribution Does for Affiliate Brands

Gambling affiliates occupy a peculiar position in the industry. They are media businesses whose entire model depends on producing content and attracting audiences. Yet most affiliates invest nothing in promoting their own brand through external media channels.

The missed opportunity is significant. An affiliate brand with press coverage on established publications gains credibility with both players and operator partners. Players encountering an affiliate’s comparison site or review platform are more likely to trust its recommendations if they have seen the brand mentioned elsewhere in independent media. The affiliate stops being just another faceless review site and becomes a recognised name in the space.

Operator partnerships benefit too. Casino and sportsbook companies evaluating potential affiliate relationships assess the affiliate’s brand strength, traffic quality and public profile. An affiliate with documented media coverage across credible publications presents a stronger case for favourable commercial terms than one with no presence beyond its own website.

The SEO advantages are particularly relevant for affiliates. The gambling affiliate market is one of the most competitive organic search environments in existence. Hundreds of sites target the same high-value keywords. Backlinks from authoritative publications built through consistent PR campaigns strengthen domain authority in ways that internal content strategies alone struggle to match.

Packages That Fit Each Business Type

Kooc Media offers standard packages and custom campaigns to suit the different needs of casino operators, sportsbook brands and affiliate businesses.

Standard packages deliver guaranteed placements across the agency’s owned sites and partner network with optional content creation and comprehensive reporting. They work for casino brands maintaining steady promotional coverage, sportsbooks keeping their name visible throughout the sporting calendar and affiliates building brand authority through regular media output.

Custom campaigns address specific strategic moments. A casino launching a new brand or entering a new market needs coordinated multi-publication coverage. A sportsbook timing a campaign around a major sporting event needs rapid distribution with precise scheduling. An affiliate network expanding its portfolio or rebranding needs press that introduces the new identity to the industry. Any of these businesses integrating cryptocurrency features needs content bridging traditional gambling and crypto audiences.

Kooc Media manages every campaign from planning through content production, distribution and final reporting.

About Kooc Media

Kooc Media is a PR distribution agency founded in 2017, specialising in online gambling, crypto, fintech and technology. The company operates its own network of news publications and distributes content through a broad global partner network to guarantee media placements. Services include press release writing, sponsored articles, homepage features, newswire distribution and complete campaign management.

Kooc Media’s gambling PR packages are available now through the company’s website at https://kooc.co.uk.

Disclaimer: This is a Press Release provided by a third party who is responsible for the content. Please conduct your own research before taking any action based on the content.

The quantum attack Bitcoin has spent years treating as tomorrow’s problem just got a little less theoretical.

Quantum security startup Project Eleven said it awarded its 1 bitcoin BTC$77,631.84 Q-Day Prize to independent researcher Giancarlo Lelli on Friday after he broke a 15-bit elliptic curve key on publicly accessible quantum hardware, deriving a private encryption key from its public counterpart.

The bounty is worth roughly $78,000 at current prices. It is said to be the largest public demonstration of the attack class that could one day threaten bitcoin, ether (ETH) and most major blockchains.

Elliptic curve cryptography is the math that lets a crypto wallet prove it controls funds without revealing its private key. A public key can be visible to everyone, but deriving the corresponding private key is supposed to be impossible in practical terms.

Quantum computers running Shor’s algorithm, a quantum technique first proposed in 1994, challenge that assumption by attacking the underlying logic that secures those signatures.

Lelli’s result does not mean bitcoin is close to being cracked. Bitcoin uses 256-bit elliptic curve security. A 15-bit key has a search space of 32,767 possibilities, tiny by comparison. The prize was designed to measure whether quantum attacks on real cryptography-based products are moving from white papers into public hardware experiments.

The previous public break was a 6-bit demonstration by Steve Tippeconnic in September 2025 using IBM’s 133-qubit quantum computer. Lelli’s 15-bit result expanded that by a factor of 512 in seven months.

A bit is the smallest unit of information in a regular computer, a qubit is the quantum computing equivalent.

Read more: A simple explainer on what quantum computing actually is, and why it is terrifying for bitcoin

Theoretical resource estimates have dropped even faster. A Google Research paper last month put the cost of a full 256-bit attack below 500,000 physical qubits, down from earlier estimates in the millions.

“The resource requirements for this type of attack keep dropping, and the barrier to running it in practice is dropping with them,” Project Eleven CEO Alex Pruden said.

Pruden noted the winning submission came from an independent researcher working on cloud-accessible hardware, not a national laboratory or a private quantum chip.

The concern is sharpest for wallets whose public keys are already visible on-chain. Project Eleven estimates roughly 6.9 million bitcoin sit in such addresses, about one-third of total supply, including Satoshi Nakamoto’s estimated 1 million bitcoin untouched since the network’s earliest years. Any quantum computer capable of breaking 256-bit ECC could work through those wallets at leisure.

Bitcoin developers have proposed migration paths including BIP-360, a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal that would add quantum-safe address types. Ethereum, Tron, StarkWare, and Ripple have each published post-quantum transition plans.

Fifteen bits is not 256 bits, but is the latest in a rapidly heating up point of interest for bitcoin developers and the broader community.

President Donald Trump’s command of U.S. financial and economic policy may have taken a step closer now that his Department of Justice has backed down from an investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, meaning his nominee to replace Powell may now have an open path to confirmation.

Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh, whose own considerable wealth includes some crypto-world assets, is awaiting a final vote from the Senate after appearing in a confirmation hearing this week. Trump, who has relentlessly blamed Powell for maintaining overly high U.S. interest rates, chose Warsh to remedy that, but Republican Senator Thom Tillis had promised to block the confirmation as long as the DOJ pressed an investigation against Powell for cost overruns in a Fed building project.

That criminal probe was dropped on Friday, and Attorney General Jeanine Pirro said the DOJ asked the Fed’s inspector general to look into the renovation situation and issue a report. When the news emerged, Kalshi’s prediction betting on Walsh’s confirmation before May 15 shot up from about 30% odds to more than 80%.

“I expect a comprehensive report in short order and am confident the outcome will assist in resolving, once and for all, the questions that led this office to issue subpoenas,” Pirro wrote in a post on social media site X. “Accordingly, I have directed my office to close our investigation as the IG undertakes this inquiry. Note well, however, that I will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so.”

Putting his own people atop the Federal Reserve not only equates with Trump’s greater influence over U.S. monetary policy, but it also leaves him with more allies on the Fed board as it makes decisions about financial policy — including implementing rules that govern the crypto industry and stablecoin issuers.

Because of Tillis’ threat, Warsh may have been in a holding pattern as long as the DOJ pursued its investigation, which could have left Powell in charge of the Fed indefinitely, well beyond the May 15 expiration of his term. Now, the Republican-majority Senate may be able to move more quickly toward confirmation of the nominee, who insisted during his hearing that he would act independently of White House direction.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee that’s considering his nomination, dismissed the move and noted the administration is still pursuing Fed Governor Lisa Cook in court.

“This is just an attempt to clear the path for Senate Republicans to install President Trump’s sock pocket Kevin Warsh as Fed chair,” Warren said in a statement. “Let’s be clear what the Justice Department announced today: They threatened to restart the bogus criminal investigation into Fed Chair Powell at any time while failing to drop their ridiculous criminal probe against Governor Lisa Cook.”

Tillis called Warsh a “great nominee.” In his own posting this week on X, the senator said he’d vote yes on Warsh once the DOJ backs off of Powell:

“I look forward to supporting him out of committee once the DOJ drops their bogus investigation into Chairman Powell that threatens the independence of the Fed.”