News linked to this event type.
Currently, quantum threats to Bitcoin remain theoretical, but companies such as Google and Cloudflare have already begun preparations and set a target of completing post-quantum migration by 2029.
Officials from the Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority, and the Treasury are consulting with the National Cyber Security Centre to examine potential vulnerabilities in critical IT systems revealed by Anthropic’s latest model.
According to CoinDesk, as North Korea’s infiltration methods targeting the cryptocurrency industry grow increasingly sophisticated, security experts point out that North Korea’s cryptocurrency theft activities differ fundamentally from those of other state-sponsored hacking groups—both in motive and methodology—making it one of the most dangerous threats facing the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
OpenAI announced that during a recent industry-wide security incident, a potential security issue was identified in Axios, a third-party development library used by OpenAI. After investigation, there is no evidence that user data was accessed, systems were compromised, or software was tampered with. As a precautionary measure, OpenAI has initiated security hardening efforts, focusing on strengthening the authentication mechanism for its macOS application to prevent malicious actors from distributing counterfeit official applications. OpenAI also urges all macOS users to update to the latest version of the application as soon as possible—either via in-app updates or through official channels—to mitigate potential risks.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, responded to a Molotov cocktail attack on his residence by stating he had “underestimated the real-world impact of public narratives and emotions amid AI anxiety” and, unusually, shared family photos publicly. Altman said he understands society’s fear and unease regarding AI’s rapid advancement, noting that humanity is currently undergoing “one of the most intense technological transformations in history.” The associated risks have expanded beyond model alignment issues to systemic, societal-level challenges. AI power must not be concentrated in the hands of a few institutions; instead, broader distribution should be achieved through technological democratization and institutional constraints. The race toward AGI has evolved into a “struggle for power,” where the allure of power—akin to the “One Ring”—may drive extreme behavior. The solution lies in expanding technological accessibility and preventing any single entity from monopolizing critical capabilities. Additionally, Altman acknowledged missteps in corporate governance and conflict resolution—including decisions made during his clash with the board—and apologized for past conduct. He reaffirmed that he had previously rejected Elon Musk’s attempt to control OpenAI, a choice that safeguarded the company’s independent development path. Earlier reports indicated that Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI, was targeted in a Molotov cocktail attack at his home.
Circle Chief Strategy Officer Dante Disparte responded to the major security breach affecting Drift Protocol on April 1, which resulted in over $270 million in stolen funds. He stated that open financial systems must be built upon foundations of legal accountability, shared security, and rules that evolve in real time with emerging threats. Circle freezes USDC funds only when legally required—a measure reflecting its compliance obligations and safeguarding users’ assets and privacy rights. He emphasized that openness and accountability must be balanced, and all participants across the ecosystem—including protocols, wallets, infrastructure providers, exchanges, and stablecoin issuers—must jointly shoulder responsibility for security and accountability. Circle is collaborating with U.S. and international policymakers to advance stablecoin legislation, including the GENIUS Act, to establish a more modern legal framework enabling lawful, rapid intervention against illicit activities while protecting property rights and privacy—ensuring the continued resilience and robust growth of open financial systems.
Decentralized GPU cloud computing infrastructure platform Aethir confirmed that its Ethereum-related bridge contract was attacked. The team promptly disconnected the affected contract and, in collaboration with major exchanges, blacklisted the hacker’s wallet, limiting losses to under $90,000. Earlier, blockchain security firm PeckShield estimated losses at $400,000. The attacker exploited Aethir’s cross-chain smart contract, AethirOFTAdapter, to transfer stolen funds from BNB Chain to Tron. Aethir stated that its Ethereum mainnet ATH token supply remains unaffected. It plans to release a detailed compensation plan and incident analysis next week and will collaborate with exchanges including Binance, Upbit, and Bithumb to freeze funds. Web3 security platform ZeroShadow is assisting with the investigation. In 2025, Aethir achieved $127.8 million in revenue and deployed over 440,000 GPU containers globally.
According to The Block, Avihu Levy, a researcher at StarkWare, published a paper proposing the Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) scheme, claiming it enables quantum-resistant transactions under Bitcoin’s existing script rules—without requiring a soft fork. This scheme replaces elliptic-curve cryptography with the RIPEMD-160 hash function via a “hash-to-signature” puzzle, thereby enhancing resilience against quantum attacks. The paper notes that QSB’s current per-transaction cost ranges from $75 to $150—significantly higher than today’s average transaction fee—and involves complex user experience; thus, it is recommended only as a “last resort.” The scheme remains constrained by script opcodes and size limits, and does not yet support all use cases—such as the Lightning Network. Compared to BIP-360—which requires protocol-level changes—QSB needs no modifications to the Bitcoin protocol, but remains experimental.
According to Reuters, Kraken has become the first cryptocurrency exchange approved for a Federal Reserve master account. However, the account is restricted: it only permits Kraken’s banking operations to access the Fedwire payment system and hold limited balances—earning no interest and ineligible for emergency lending. This move has raised concerns in the U.S. financial system regarding risk and transparency, including a call from Maxine Waters, Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, for greater disclosure of account details. Regulatory experts warn that lightly regulated crypto firms gaining direct access to the Federal Reserve’s payment system could pose operational and financial stability risks. The Federal Reserve stated that these restrictions are intended to mitigate liquidity shocks and credit risk; however, banks caution that they may impair banking system liquidity and exacerbate money laundering and operational vulnerabilities. Kraken says its bank reserves are fully backed and that it complies with bank-level anti-money laundering (AML) and customer identification requirements.
He Yi also firmly responded to external attacks targeting her personally at the end of the article, stating: “You’re clearly well-versed in attacking a professional woman—just stigmatize her by claiming, ‘She only got where she is today thanks to men,’ deliberately fabricate salacious rumors, and reduce me to a ‘trophy.’” She emphasized: “My identity isn’t granted by anyone—I forged it myself. I came, I saw, I conquered—true for my career, and equally true for my relationships.”
According to Cointelegraph, the joint U.S., U.K., and Canadian law enforcement operation “Operation Atlantic” concluded in March this year, led by the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA). The operation froze over $12 million in assets suspected to be proceeds of fraud, identified more than 20,000 victims, and involved total fraud losses exceeding $45 million. The operation focused on authorized phishing attacks—a scam technique that tricks users into signing malicious authorizations, thereby granting attackers permission to transfer tokens from their wallets. Binance participated in the operation, providing account screening and fraud intelligence support; however, no funds were frozen from its platform.
U.S. law firm Gibbs Mura has launched a class-action litigation investigation into the April 1, 2026, hack of Drift Protocol, reviewing potential investor claims against Circle Internet Financial. The attack resulted in the theft of approximately $280–285 million in assets. The attacker subsequently used Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) to bridge over $230 million worth of USDC to Ethereum—Circle took no action to freeze the funds throughout the incident. Notably, just nine days prior, Circle had voluntarily frozen 16 business wallets in a separate civil dispute. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic suspects the attack was carried out by a North Korea–backed hacking group. As a result of the breach, Drift Protocol’s total value locked (TVL) plummeted from $550 million to below $250 million, the DRIFT token price dropped more than 40%, and at least 20 DeFi protocols suffered indirect losses.
According to ZachXBT, BitcoinDepot filed an 8-K on April 6, 2026, stating that it discovered the theft of 50.9 BTC on March 23; on-chain tracking shows that 19 high-confidence theft addresses had already transferred a total of 54.45 BTC as early as March 20—3.55 BTC more than disclosed—and the funds ultimately flowed into KuCoin, indicating the company may have detected the anomaly three days late.
According to on-chain analyst PeckShield (@PeckShieldAlert), the attacker established a $15 million long position in $Fartcoin (totaling 145.24 million tokens) on Hyperliquid using four wallets. Subsequently, in a low-liquidity environment, the attacker deliberately triggered a “suicidal” liquidation, forcing activation of the ADL (Automatic Deleveraging) mechanism. As a result, the HLP liquidity pool was compelled to absorb toxic assets, generating bad debt and incurring approximately $3 million in paper losses. The HLP has lost roughly $1.5 million within the past 24 hours. PeckShield noted that the attacker likely executed cross-market hedging strategies in advance, meaning the actual net profit may significantly exceed the reported paper loss figure.
According to Decrypt, Bitcoin ATM operator Bitcoin Depot filed a disclosure with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealing that it suffered a cybersecurity attack on March 23. Hackers infiltrated the company’s IT systems to obtain credentials for its digital asset settlement account and stole approximately 50.9 BTC—valued at roughly $3.665 million—from the company’s wallet. Following the incident, the company activated its incident response protocol, engaged external cybersecurity experts to conduct an investigation, and notified law enforcement authorities. Bitcoin Depot stated that its customer platform and user data remained unaffected. The company classified this event as a material matter, which may result in reputational damage and additional legal and regulatory costs.