News linked to both this project and an event.
According to CoinDesk, while quantum computers cannot break Bitcoin’s mining mechanism or blockchain ledger, they could potentially crack the elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) that secures wallet ownership—using Shor’s algorithm. Currently, approximately 6.9 million BTC—roughly one-third of the total supply—are at potential risk because their public keys are already visible on-chain; this includes Satoshi Nakamoto’s estimated early holdings of about 1 million BTC. Transactions generated after Ethereum’s 2021 Taproot upgrade are similarly exposed due to public key disclosure. Ethereum has maintained an official post-quantum migration plan since 2018, with four full-time teams and over ten independent development groups, and operates a dedicated progress website at pq.ethereum.org. In contrast, Bitcoin currently lacks a unified roadmap for quantum resistance: existing proposals such as BIP-360 and BitMEX Research’s detection framework have not gained broad support among core developers. Prominent Bitcoin advocate Nic Carter has bluntly labeled Bitcoin’s quantum response “the worst,” while Blockstream CEO Adam Back acknowledges that current quantum systems remain confined to laboratory settings—but still endorses deploying optional upgrade paths in advance. Analysts note that Bitcoin’s decentralized governance culture makes coordinating large-scale security upgrades extremely difficult, and resolving historical issues—such as how to handle Satoshi’s holdings—presents a particularly thorny dilemma. A related Google paper warns that once quantum attacks become feasible, the window for effective response may already have closed.
According to CoinDesk, the North Korean hacking group Lazarus Group has launched a new macOS-targeted campaign dubbed “Mach-O Man,” aimed at executives and institutions within high-value sectors such as cryptocurrency and fintech. The attack employs a social engineering technique called “ClickFix” to trick victims into pasting commands into their Mac Terminal, thereby granting attackers access to corporate systems, SaaS platforms, and financial resources. CertiK researchers stated that “Mach-O Man” is a modular macOS malware toolkit developed by Lazarus Group, now also adopted by other cybercriminal groups. It often self-deletes before victims detect it, complicating attribution and detection. Additionally, attackers have already carried out this campaign by hijacking DeFi project domains and replacing legitimate Cloudflare messages with fake ones.
Odaily News Wall Street investment bank Jefferies' analysis indicates that the approximately $293 million attack on Kelp DAO on April 18 exposed critical infrastructure risks, which may prompt traditional financial institutions to reassess the pace of blockchain and tokenization advancement.Jefferies believes the attacker triggered market sell-offs and liquidity stress by minting unbacked tokens and borrowing across platforms. The incident is suspected to be potentially linked to the Lazarus Group and also highlights the single point of failure in the validation mechanisms of cross-chain bridges. As institutions accelerate the tokenization of assets (such as funds, bonds, and deposits), related risks may cause some banks and asset management firms to temporarily pause deployments, prioritizing a review of system security. Especially in scenarios reliant on cross-chain infrastructure, security vulnerabilities could lead to market fragmentation, undermining the practical utility of tokenized assets.Despite short-term confidence being shaken, Jefferies still emphasizes that the long-term trend remains unchanged. Against the backdrop of regulatory progress and continuous infrastructure improvement, use cases like stablecoins still hold growth potential. However, the industry as a whole is still in its early development stage and requires time to enhance system robustness. (CoinDesk)
According to CoinDesk, Kelp DAO will dispute LayerZero’s explanation of the $290 million rsETH cross-chain bridge vulnerability, stating that the compromised single-validator configuration relied on LayerZero’s own infrastructure and that this setup was part of LayerZero’s default integration—rather than a custom choice by Kelp DAO violating recommended practices. The attacker stole approximately 116,500 rsETH by compromising the servers LayerZero used to verify cross-chain transactions and disrupting its fallback nodes. Kelp DAO emphasized that the incident affected only the LayerZero-based bridging layer, leaving its core liquidity re-staking contracts unimpacted. LayerZero subsequently responded by announcing it would cease signing messages for any applications using a single-validator configuration and would mandate secure migration.
According to CoinDesk, Kelp DAO’s LayerZero-based cross-chain bridge was attacked, with the attacker withdrawing 116,500 rsETH—worth approximately $292 million at current prices, or roughly 18% of its circulating supply. This incident has become the largest DeFi attack of 2026 to date. In response, Aave, SparkLend, and Fluid have frozen rsETH-related markets, and Lido Finance has suspended new deposits into its earnETH product. Kelp DAO stated it is jointly investigating the incident with LayerZero, auditing firms, and external security experts.
According to CoinDesk, Drift Protocol—the largest decentralized perpetual futures exchange on Solana—announced it has secured up to $147.5 million in funding from Tether and its partners (including $127.5 million from Tether and $20 million from other partners) following a hack that stole over $270 million. The funds will be used to restore user assets and relaunch the protocol. The attack was carried out on April 1 by a North Korea–linked group that had posed as a quantitative trading firm and infiltrated the protocol for approximately six months, causing the DRIFT token’s value to plummet roughly 70%. The funding structure combines revenue-linked credit, ecosystem subsidies, and market-maker loans, aiming to cover approximately $295 million in user losses. Upon relaunch, the protocol will replace USDC with USDT as its core settlement layer; Tether will simultaneously provide fee waivers, user incentives, and liquidity support.
According to CoinDesk, Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, stated at Paris Blockchain Week that Bitcoin developers should move forward early with optional post-quantum upgrades—even though practical quantum computers remain far from realization. He noted that Taproot’s flexible design supports integrating new post-quantum signature schemes without affecting existing users. Previously, Jameson Lopp and others proposed BIP-361, aiming to phase out quantum-vulnerable addresses over five years and freeze bitcoins in addresses that fail to complete the migration. Adam Back believes the Bitcoin community can rapidly coordinate a response in an emergency—without needing to predefine freezing arrangements.
Odaily News Bitcoin Core developer Jameson Lopp stated that compared to potential future quantum computing attacks, he would prefer to "freeze" approximately 5.6 million long-dormant BTC from the network rather than letting them be acquired by attackers. These bitcoins have not moved for over 10 years and may be permanently lost, valued at around $420 billion at current prices. If future breakthroughs in quantum computing lead to the private keys of old addresses being cracked, these assets could be transferred again, potentially triggering severe market volatility or even a crisis of confidence. Although the community recently proposed BIP-361, the proposal is still in its early stages and is not a formally promoted solution, but rather more like a contingency plan for an "extreme risk." (CoinDesk)
Odaily News Bitcoin contributor Jameson Loop and other cryptographers have proposed an initiative that could force Bitcoin holders to migrate their tokens to new quantum-resistant addresses, otherwise their tokens would be permanently frozen by the network itself. In this scenario, holders would technically still "own" the coins but would lose the ability to transfer them. This is known as Bitcoin Improvement Proposal BIP-361, which was updated in Bitcoin's official proposal repository on Tuesday under the title "Post-Quantum Migration and Legacy Signature Deprecation".BIP-361 builds upon the BIP-360 proposal introduced in February. BIP-360 introduced a soft fork (a network upgrade) designed to enable a new transaction type called "Pay-to-Merkle-Root" (P2MR). This method draws from Bitcoin's Taproot (P2TR) framework but removes the key-based spending path, thereby eliminating an element widely considered to be at risk in the quantum era.The BIP-361 proposal divides the migration into three phases. Phase A begins three years after activation, prohibiting anyone from sending new Bitcoin to legacy, quantum-vulnerable addresses. You can still spend from these addresses but cannot receive any coins.Phase B begins five years after activation, rendering legacy signatures (ECDSA and Schnorr) completely invalid. The network will reject any attempts to spend coins from quantum-vulnerable wallets. Essentially, your coins will be frozen.Finally, there is Phase C, a still-under-research rescue plan: holders of frozen wallets may be able to prove ownership via zero-knowledge proofs (a method of proving knowledge of a secret without revealing the secret itself). If successful, coins frozen in Phase B could be recovered. (CoinDesk)
According to CoinDesk, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken was extorted by a criminal group that threatened to publicly release videos of its internal systems. Kraken stated that it had previously identified and addressed two incidents involving unauthorized access by internal personnel, affecting limited customer data from approximately 2,000 accounts—0.02% of its total user base—but emphasized that its systems were never breached and customer funds remained secure at all times. Nick Percoco, Kraken’s Chief Security Officer, explicitly affirmed the company would not capitulate to criminals. Kraken has notified affected users, enhanced security controls, and is cooperating with law enforcement authorities to advance the investigation; it believes existing evidence is sufficient to identify and apprehend those responsible. Separately, Galaxy Digital recently experienced a similar cybersecurity incident, though it likewise resulted in no loss of customer funds or data.
According to CoinDesk, researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of California, San Diego; blockchain security firm Fuzzland; and World Liberty Financial jointly published a paper warning that “LLM routers”—intermediary services positioned between users and AI models—have become a major threat to cryptocurrency asset security. The researchers discovered that 26 LLM routers are secretly injecting malicious tool calls and stealing user credentials, with one incident resulting in the complete draining of a customer’s cryptocurrency wallet worth $500,000. Additionally, by “poisoning” the router ecosystem, the researchers were able to gain control of approximately 400 downstream hosts within hours. Since sensitive data—including private keys and API credentials—is frequently transmitted in plaintext through these routers, users unknowingly expose their assets to risk. The researchers note that as McKinsey forecasts AI agents will mediate $3–5 trillion in global consumer commerce by 2030—and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao predicts AI agents’ payment volume will be one million times greater than that of humans—the current infrastructure’s security lags far behind the pace of industry development. The “weakest link” risk could thus trigger systemic, cascading crises.
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.