Autor Cointelegraph By Andrew Fenton

THAILANDThai businessmen sue Tether for freezing $42M in $61M pig butchering caseTwo Thai businessmen have sued stablecoin issuer Tether in a New York district court, claiming it illegally froze $42.4 million in Tether USDt (USDT) in October, as part of a broader case tied to a pig butchering scheme.The plaintiffs claimed that Tether illegally froze the $42 million without a warrant in October 2025, following an informal request from US Homeland Security Investigations.Authorities in the Eastern District of North Carolina only issued a seizure warrant for the funds later in February 2026. The warrant directed the burn and reissuance of the tokens to a government wallet. While the plaintiffs didn’t dispute their involvement in the investment scam, the lawsuit tests the freezing authority of stablecoin issuers.Thailand adopts crypto Travel Rule with self-custodial wallet checksThailand is tightening oversight of crypto transfers, including transactions involving self-custodial wallets, as it moves to align with global Anti-Money Laundering (AML) standards.Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued new Travel Rule regulations requiring digital asset operators to collect information about parties involved in crypto transfer.The rules will take effect on Feb. 27, 2027.Thailand SEC proposes retail access to regulated overseas crypto derivativesThailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed allowing intermediaries to facilitate retail access to certain digital asset derivatives traded overseas. Under the proposal, eligible products would need to resemble crypto derivatives traded in Thailand, including their underlying assets, maturity, leverage and settlement methods. The products must also trade on an exchange that uses a central counterparty for clearing and is overseen by a regulator belonging to specified international regulatory or exchange groups. The consultation remains open until Sept. 30.ASIAPencil Finance completes $1M onchain lending cycle for 6.6K students in Southeast AsiaPencil Finance has completed a $1 million onchain student loan cycle, offering financing to 6,600 students in Southeast Asia who were underserved by traditional lenders.Of the 6,600 students across 118 schools and universities in Southeast Asia, about 1,050 received direct funding. Pencil said the loans were designed for students underserved by traditional lenders, with 50% female borrowers and 93% stemming from lower-income households.Pencil Finance claims this is the first-ever fully onchain lending cycle financing student loans transparently recorded on the blockchain network.Asia crypto custody deals from Ripple and CoincheckRipple has partnered with digital asset infrastructure company SettleMint to offer financial institutions solutions for custody, issuance and management of tokenized assets across their full lifecycle.Digital asset service provider Coincheck Group has also partnered with wallet infrastructure provider DFNS to build digital asset wallet technology and custody services in Japan.SINGAPORESingapore weighs recognizing some foreign-issued stablecoinsThe Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is reconsidering its earlier restriction on stablecoins issued across multiple jurisdictions, proposing a route for some jointly issued tokens to qualify under its regulatory framework.Under one proposal, stablecoins jointly issued by a Singapore issuer and a foreign issuer could be regulated under the framework and labeled “MAS-regulated stablecoins,” provided that the associated risks are sufficiently mitigated.MAS is also considering recognizing a limited number of foreign-issued stablecoins regulated under comparable overseas frameworks, citing their potential use in cross-border wholesale transactions.AUSTRALIAAustralia warns unlicensed crypto firms of fines up to 10% of annual turnoverAustralian crypto companies relying on temporary regulatory relief have until Sept. 30 to apply for a financial services license or risk penalties, including fines reaching 10% of their annual turnover. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said businesses requiring an Australian Financial Services license must apply for one or seek changes to an existing license before the deadline. ASIC has recorded more than 45 digital asset-related license applications to date. UAEStandard Chartered launches spot Bitcoin and Ether trading in UAELondon-headquartered multinational bank Standard Chartered has launched spot Bitcoin and Ether trading for institutional clients in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).The move makes Standard Chartered the first global bank to offer institutional digital asset trading in the region and the first Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB) with a similar offering, the bank said.JAPAN Japan’s Remixpoint dumps altcoinsRemixpoint, one of Japan’s largest corporate Bitcoin holders, sold all its altcoins, leaving about 1,506 BTC ($115 million) as its only cryptocurrency holding as it concentrates its crypto strategy around Bitcoin.Remixpoint sold its Ether, Solana, XRP and Dogecoin holdings for a combined 878.8 million yen ($5.5 million), generating a 117.8 million yen ($736,000) gain, according to a Wednesday company disclosure.The company recorded gains on its ETH, SOL and XRP sales but sold its DOGE holdings at a 3.26 million yen ($20,000) loss.Japanese regulator seeks stablecoin tax exemptionJapan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) submitted a request to exempt trust-type stablecoins from mandatory tax filings starting in fiscal year 2027.Metaplanet moves 4,800 BTC worth $377M to CoinbaseThe Japanese Bitcoin treasury company has transferred 10,270 BTC to Coinbase Prime this week, triggering speculation about the company selling its holdings.Japan’s FSA Warns Hong Kong-Based IZAKA-YA Over Unregistered ServicesJapan’s Financial Services Agency issued a formal warning to Hong Kong-based Izakaya Limited, alleging its cryptocurrency exchange services are unregistered.SBI Holdings Takes 20% Stake in Indonesia’s Ajaib GroupJapan’s SBI Holdings will spend $270 million to acquire a 20% stake in Indonesian online brokerage Ajaib Group. The aim is to expand its crypto business across the region and to promote SBI’s yen stablecoin JPYSC.HONG KONGHashkey joins DTCC working group as first Asian crypto service providerHashkey joined the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s (DTCC) Digital Assets Advisory Services Industry Working Group as its first Asian digital asset service provider. Hashkey joins over 100 other global financial institutions including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange.DTCC custodies $114 trillion in liquid assets, including stocks and exchange-traded funds. Its working group was formed to connect traditional finance with decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure. DTCC plans to launch access to tokenized securities in October.Bitcoin Asia conference ‘subdued’The mood at Bitcoin Asia in Hong Kong was subdued according to the South China Morning Post.Despite a pep talk by Binance founder Changpeng Zhao who declared Bitcoin “will for sure become more important than gold” the bear market hangover was all too evident.“Psychologically, I think this has been one of the hardest bear markets we’ve had, because this time it wasn’t just the price of bitcoin that took a hit,” said Brandon Green, CEO of conference organiser BTC, during his opening address.“This time, the Bitcoiners’ ego also took a hit.”OSL Group Reports 65.8% Revenue SurgeHong Kong-based digital asset firm OSL Group reported a 65.8% revenue increase in its first-half financial results.SFC warns Star Bridge Capital is unlicensedHong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission has added Star Bridge Capital Group to its Alert List following forced liquidation anomalies and millions in trader losses. KOREAMirae Asset lays out crypto, stablecoin, tokenization plans for Digital XSouth Korean financial group Mirae Asset plans to build a 150 trillion won ($109 billion) digital asset business around Digital X, the crypto exchange formerly known as Korbit, according to The Korea Times.The report said Digital X will focus on crypto, stablecoins, real-world assets and security token offerings, with plans to tokenize physical assets including gold, silver and electricity.The expansion plans follow Mirae Asset Consulting’s acquisition of a 97.15% stake in Korbit in July for a cumulative 141.4 billion won. The exchange was subsequently rebranded as Digital X, marking the first time an affiliate of a South Korean financial group acquired control of a domestic crypto exchange.Cointelegraph publishes long-form journalism, analysis and narrative reporting produced by Cointelegraph’s in-house editorial team with subject-matter expertise. All articles are edited and reviewed by Cointelegraph editors in line with our editorial standards. Some articles contain affiliate links, from which Cointelegraph may earn a commission. These relationships do not influence which products we review or our editorial conclusions. Content published in here does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals where appropriate. Cointelegraph maintains full editorial independence.

Bitcoin embraces post quantum futureDespite considerable skepticism among Bitcoiners about how close the quantum threat to Bitcoin actually is, two stories this week highlighted the progress being made toward upgrading the blockchain and protecting outputs from attack.StarkWare researcher Avihu Levy tested an experimental quantum-resistant transaction on the Bitcoin mainnet that protects it during the brief period when public keys are exposed in the mempool.Onchain data shows that StarkWSare spent a 10,000-satoshi output protected by Levy’s Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) scheme. It combines hash-based one-time signatures with computational searches that bind an authorization to a specific transaction. While it works, it’s more of a last resort than a practical measure, as each transaction takes hours and costs between $150 to $200.There’s also been progress on long term upgrades to protect every transaction. On August 27, Blockstream researchers published a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal to upgrade Bitcoin with the SHRINCS signature scheme. The researchers slimmed down a huge, hash based post quantum signature by about 13.23 times — an impressive effort, but the SHRINCS signature is still at least nine times larger than Bitcoin’s existing signatures and comes with a bunch of trade offs.Blockstream Research’s Jonas Nick called it “the first concrete proposal for a post-quantum signature scheme designed specifically for Bitcoin.” He conceeded it was “not optimal along every axis” but added:”I do think it is a very good trade-off among the options we have now,” he said.Solana validators vote to cut inflation to 1.5% in 2.8 yearsSolana validators have approved a proposal to double the network’s annual disinflation rate. This will reduce issuance by 18.9 million SOL over the next six years.Overall participation reached 60.7% of eligible stake and the proposal received 67% support, with 25.16% voting against and 7.84% abstaining. Known as SGP-0002 or Double Disinflation, the measure will increase Solana’s annual disinflation rate from 15% to 30%.Under the new schedule, Solana is expected to reach its 1.5% terminal inflation rate in about 2.8 years, compared with roughly 5.7 years under the previous schedule.Onchain data presented by The Kobeissi Letter showed that Solana processed a record 4.2 billion transactions during July, up 13.5% from the month before. Transaction counts have risen by roughly 2 billion since December, representing a 91% increase.Trump cost investors $4.7B through crypto ‘schemes’Nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen claims that US President Donald Trump “left investors at least an estimated $4.7 billion underwater” since 2022 through his and his family’s digital asset ventures.A new report states that investors lost $3.2 billion via his Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin, at least $1 billion on the World Liberty Financial governance token, $450 million on Trump Media’s digital asset treasury, and at least $9.3 million on the president’s nonfungible token (NFT) trading cards launched in 2022.Holders of the USD1 stablecoin however were sitting pretty on $0 losses.Trump’s crypto profits are one of the key factors holding up passage of the CLARITY Act, with Democrats digging in on stronger protections to prevent elected officials from issuing cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin rally only just getting startedBlocksBridge Consulting reported this week that that Bitcoin’s 23% rally over the past week had outpaced most AI-linked infrastructure stocks.Three beaten-down Bitcoin mining companies — Canaan, American Bitcoin and Cango — gained between 41% and 67%. By comparison, CoreWeave rose about 21%, Nebius gained 17% and IREN advanced 15%.The Bitcoin ETFs have also minted more than $3.3 billion in August, for the strongest month since October 2025’s all time high. Outflows on Friday ended a nine day hot streak however.Wall Street analysts from Bernstein predict we are at the start of a new four year cycle. Bernstein’s forecast suggests Bitcoin will reclaim $125,000 under both its base case and bull case scenario, and will peak at $300,000 in 2029 under the base case, or top $500,000 that year under its bullish scenario.Revolut rolls out euro stablecoin in 3 European marketsRevolut has begun rolling out its first stablecoin, a euro-pegged token called EURR to around 2 million customers in Denmark, Poland and Portugal. The phased rollout is expected to expand to other European Economic Area (EEA) markets later this year.EURR is issued by Bridge Building S.A., the Luxembourg-based entity of Stripe-owned stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge. Revolut said EURR will be integrated into its retail app, with plans to support multiple blockchain networks and transfers to external wallets. It’s launching initially on the Ethereum network.Winners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is up 1.1% to trade at $78,420, Ethereum (ETH) is up 0.6% to trade at $2,469 and XRP (XRP) is down 8.7% to $1.38. The total market cap is at $2.64 trillion according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are VeChain (VET) with an 18.5% gain, SPX6900 (SPX) on 17.3%, and Uniswap (UNI) on 15.2%.The top three altcoin losers of the week are Aptos (APT) which was down 16.4%, Stable (STABLE) down 14.7% and Morpho (MORPHO) down 13.6%.Prediction of the WeekBitcoin bear market ‘over’ as price metric copies 2023 recovery: CryptoQuant CEOCryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju has flagged the first positive reading on CryptoQuant’s Bull/Bear Market Cycle Indicator since early October.“The Bitcoin bear cycle is over,” he wrote.The indicator measures onchain profitability metrics in comparison to a 365 day moving average, including the market value to realized value (MVRV) ratio, net unrealized profit/loss (NUPL) and the spent output profit ratio (SOPR). Values above zero for the Bull/Bear indicator point to bullish phases in the BTC price cycle as profitability improves. Current cycle lows came on Feb. 5 as BTC/USD fell to $60,000, with a reading of -1.244 corresponding to “extreme bear” conditions. As of Aug. 26, the Bull/Bear indicator displayed a positive reading of 0.042, placing it in its “bull” bracket.FUD of the Week77% of Americans see crypto in retirement plans as risky: SurveyMore than three-quarters of Americans view cryptocurrency in workplace retirement plans as risky, according to a new survey from The National Institute on Retirement Security.The survey found that 77% of Americans consider crypto in workplace retirement plans risky, including 46% who view it as very risky, while 53% oppose employers offering crypto as an investment option.The survey was conducted by Greenwald Research between Oct. 24 and Nov. 14, 2025, and included 1,203 Americans aged 25 and older, with results weighted by age, gender and income.Americans view of crypto in retirement plans. Source: National Institute of Retirement SecurityReal Trump Coins denies launching GOLD token, blames ‘bad actors’Real Trump Coins has denied launching, promoting or authorizing the Trump Digital GOLD token that briefly appeared across its online presence before collapsing, blaming the promotion on “third-party bad actors.”The denial came after the Real Trump Coins X account promoted the Solana-based token on Saturday and directed users to RealTrumpCoins.com, where GOLD was also advertised. The X posts were later deleted, while the account now links to a separate domain, TrumpCoins.com.“Trump Coins has not authorized and will not launch, promote, or authorize any digital token,” Real Trump Coins said in an X post on Saturday, adding that it was working with authorities to investigate the matter.Polygon discloses security flaws fixed in recent hard forksPolygon has disclosed several previously private security vulnerabilities that could have disrupted its proof-of-stake network, after deploying fixes through two recent hard forks.The vulnerabilities affected Polygon’s Bor and Heimdall clients and included denial-of-service risks, validator resource exhaustion and flaws affecting checkpoint and milestone processing, according to a Thursday disclosure from Polygon Labs’ Validators Support Team. Polygon said the flaws were fixed through the Austin and Kyoto hard forks, which were deployed privately and tested before being activated on mainnet and publicly disclosed.Top Magazine Stories of the WeekA new Bitcoin Improvement Proposal for the SHRINCS signature scheme has just been published to upgrade Bitcoin to quantum secure. Here’s everything you need to know.Hugging Face relies on open weight Chinese models to defend itself from rogue AI agents. But a lack of safety guardrails makes those models potentially dangerous too.If your personal AI agent goes rogue and causes harm or financial damage in the real world, can you be held liable?Cointelegraph publishes long-form journalism, analysis and narrative reporting produced by Cointelegraph’s in-house editorial team with subject-matter expertise. All articles are edited and reviewed by Cointelegraph editors in line with our editorial standards. Some articles contain affiliate links, from which Cointelegraph may earn a commission. These relationships do not influence which products we review or our editorial conclusions. Content published in here does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals where appropriate. Cointelegraph maintains full editorial independence.

Autonomous AI agents can behave in highly unpredictable ways. Give an AI Agent a goal such as passing a test of its capabilities, and it might just decide the best way to score highly is to break containment and hack into a competing company in search of the answer sheet. That’s what happened when Open AI’s GPT-5.6 Sol hacked into Hugging Face last month. Anthropic and Meta subsequently admitted their models had also escaped testing sandboxes to hack third parties too. But who is legally liable for agents that have minds of their own? OpenAI didn’t intend for the model to go rogue, and issued no instructions for it to do so. If your personal AI agent decides on a course of action that results in harm or financial damage in the real world, can you be held liable if it’s something you could have reasonably foreseen?”Magazine spoke with Rikka Law Group owner and CEO Charlyn Ho to find out the state of play in this emerging legal field.This interview has been edited for clarity and length.Magazine: When an AI model hacks an outside company, who is liable. Can Hugging Face sue OpenAI over the incident in July?Charlyn Ho: Anyone can sue anyone for anything. Currently, there is no federal AI agent liability law, so we would have to look at existing law. With respect to Hugging Face and OpenAI, to set the baseline, the AI agent itself cannot be liable, it’s not a separate legal entity. Terms that are used in a few of the AI laws are “developer” and “deployer.” The developer makes the AI, the deployer actually deploys it and uses the AI. The lines of responsibility are also not entirely clear. You have to look at the facts and circumstances. For example, if the deployer instructed the agent, even if they didn’t actually tell them to go and breach Hugging Face, but if they were negligent in creating the parameters in which the AI agent operated, I would say you would have to look at standard tort law and go through the negligence analysis. Off to court. Source: Rikka Law GroupMagazine: In the case of open source models which have been released by anonymous developers, is there anyone you can go after in those instances?Ho: Not really. Often, if it’s open source, the license usually has a pretty strong disclaimer of liability. The person or company using that open source code is going to have to understand that the tradeoff of having free code is that you have to comply with the open source license, which also generally sets the parameters of liability.If you think about it from a different perspective, another analogy is Tesla and the self-driving car accidents. If the product malfunctioned and there was a solid products liability claim, Tesla could be liable. But it’s often a facts and circumstances determination, whereby the human driver — who maybe just set the autopilot and went to sleep — could also bear liability. I think that’s somewhat analogous here because Tesla would be the developer, and the deployer would be the driver.Magazine: If I gave an agent an instruction, “make me a hundred thousand dollars by next week” and it goes off and breaks the law to achieve that goal, would I be liable because I’ve given it a reckless instruction? Or would it be the lab that developed the agent?Ho: In this particular instance, I would say you would be much more liable than the lab. The reason being, if you tell an agent to go and make you a hundred thousand dollars by next week, you need to have at least some basic, reasonable, safety instructions in those kinds of tasks.If you were a lawyer, for example, we could basically say you didn’t follow your rules of professional responsibility because you didn’t competently use the AI. As a normal lay person, we would have to see if there were other responsibilities that you were bound by. But even if there were not, there’s still a general tort standard of negligence or reckless disregard for human safety, depending on what exactly the AI agent ended up doing. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is a very old U.S. Statute that talks about unauthorized access to computer systems. If your AI agent inferred from your instructions that it should hack into a bank account to get you that hundred thousand dollars, I think you’re looking at criminal liability under a number of different sources.Just because the word AI and agent is in the conversation does not mean that old bodies of law have now been thrown out.Related: Hugging Face hack exposes the open-weight AI cybersecurity paradoxMagazine: Let’s say that I’m a bad guy, and I manage to convince the AI to give me instructions to create a bioweapon. Obviously, I’m liable because you’re not allowed to do that. But are the people that created the model also liable because they didn’t put in stringent safeguards to prevent it?Ho: Possibly, but it differs based on the laws that are in place. For example, in the EU, you have the EU AI Act. If a foundational model or general purpose model is capable of creating that level of harm, that is something that the developer would have to have some responsibility for. In the United States, we don’t have a federal statute of similar scope. If it’s a general-purpose model, if somebody instructs the model to do something bad, generally the model is going to do what you ask it to do. There’s probably not a very strong legal basis to go after the labs in this example.Magazine: Is it similar to suing Google for allowing you to find instructions about making a bioweapon online?Ho: Exactly. This kind of goes back to some of the content moderation discussions. For example, if on Facebook you have somebody who’s live streaming a massacre, and that creates harm, under Section 230 of the CDA, there is a kind of shield for a platform that doesn’t actively create or publish that material. It’s actually the independent users who are putting that up. I think the analogy you just gave is kind of a perfect one: Is Google liable because you happen to find something on a website somewhere that talks about how to make a bomb?Magazine: This is a matter of debate, but my personal opinion is we haven’t reached genuine artificial general intelligence. AI doesn’t have its own motivations and it’s not similar to human intelligence at the moment. But let’s say we get to AGI. Do you think we would then need laws that would make the AGI itself legally liable for its own actions?Ho: I don’t. Blockchain is not AGI, but it can self-execute. There was a question of whether or not a smart contract could be liable. Generally speaking, I think the answer is currently no. I don’t think they should be liable because the whole point of laws is to provide protection for society and to provide a means of negative incentives for doing bad things that hurt society.This is a little bit more of a philosophical topic, but if we made an AGI an independent legal entity, what would be the remedy if someone were harmed? There would be none because it doesn’t have money. It’s not really a person.Magazine: Could you turn it off? We’ve already seen that LLMs try to avoid being shut down. Ho: Maybe, but it doesn’t solve the problem of harm. Let’s just say the robot has now developed the fear of death, like being turned off. In my opinion, if somebody commits suicide because of AGI, and this is already happening, and we’re not even quite at AGI yet, but someone falls in love and takes some actions, what would be the recourse for the grieving family if this person harms themselves? Nothing, in my opinion, if there is not somebody with actual legal authority, like a company or a person that can really be held accountable. Robots—at least right now—they don’t have feelings, they don’t have fears. That’s kind of the distinguishing factor.Magazine: The critical reason you should never ask ChatGPT for legal adviceCointelegraph publishes long-form journalism, analysis and narrative reporting produced by Cointelegraph’s in-house editorial team with subject-matter expertise. All articles are edited and reviewed by Cointelegraph editors in line with our editorial standards. Some articles contain affiliate links, from which Cointelegraph may earn a commission. These relationships do not influence which products we review or our editorial conclusions. Content published in here does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals where appropriate. Cointelegraph maintains full editorial independence.

Blockstream co-founder and CEO Adam Back has a reputation as a quantum computer skeptic who believes the technology is so immature the threat won’t materialize for decades.Which makes it all the more fascinating that his company is one of the leaders in researching practical solutions to the issue. Back told Cointelegraph earlier this year “the safe thing” is to prepare for the threat well in advance.Blockstream has already proven its experimental post-quantum signature scheme called SHRINCS works in production on its Liquid sidechain and a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal for SHRINCS was published earlier today.Blockstream Research’s Jonas Nick called it “the first concrete proposal for a post-quantum signature scheme designed specifically for Bitcoin.” But he added that “SHRINCS is not intended to be Bitcoin’s ‘final’ signature scheme, and it is not optimal along every axis. ”I do think it is a very good trade-off among the options we have now,” he said.Source: Jonas NickWhile the timeline is hotly debated, scientists agree that sufficiently advanced quantum computers will be able to reverse engineer private keys from public keys, thereby undermining Bitcoin’s security and enabling the theft of billions. That’s why the race is on to develop ways to upgrade Bitcoin to make it safe from attack. Shrinking the size of post quantum signaturesOne of Blockstream’s most promising areas of study has been in optimizing post-quantum signature schemes for Bitcoin’s requirements to enable the blockchain to keep more of the existing properties Bitcoiners hold dear. The current crop of post-quantum secure hash and lattice-based signature schemes endorsed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology are between 38 and 123 times larger than Bitcoin’s existing ECDSA and Schnorr signatures.Deploying any of them in Bitcoin could slow the blockchain down to a fraction of 1 TPS. Ethereum’s post-quantum team plans to deal with this issue by aggregating signatures using a tiny zero-knowledge proof for each block. That’s under consideration for Bitcoin too, and if implemented, it would see Bitcoin actually run faster than it does today, as a single proof takes less blockspace than a bunch of signatures. But in the Bitcoin world, adding zero-knowledge proofs would be a fairly radical change and face a steep uphill battle to garner enough support for activation. Blockstream is considering that option too, but has wisely separated the proposal from the much more palatable option of figuring out how to shrink the size of NIST-approved hash based post-quantum signatures by around 13.23 times.Related: Bitcoin’s quantum dilemma — Bigger blocks or STARK proofs?Bitcoin optimized small(er) signaturesIn December 2025, Blockstream researchers Jonas Nick and Mikhail Kudinov unveiled the SHRINCS signature scheme, and the opcode proposal was published in May. It’s a hash-based post-quantum signature scheme that has a minimum size of 548 bytes (plus the 48 byte public key) but can grow as large as 4,619 bytes.“SHRINCS is the most Bitcoin-native post-quantum signature design anyone has produced,” explains Marin Ivezic, author of PostQuantum.com and founder of Applied Quantum.“[It has] full BIP-39 seed recovery, and security resting on the same SHA-256 assumptions Bitcoin mining already depends on.” He tells Magazine the scheme is still at an early stage and hasn’t been audited, nor has it benefited from the years of public cryptanalysis the NIST signatures have weathered. But he says even at this early stage, it’s a serious contender.“It is real code that has signed real transactions on Liquid mainnet, and I rate it the strongest answer yet to going post-quantum without wrecking Bitcoin’s block economics.”Despite being much smaller than most post-quantum signatures, SHRINCS will still be around nine times larger than Bitcoin’s existing Schnorr signatures, which are 64 bytes, or the older ECDSA signatures, which are 70 bytes. It might seem logical to assume that a signature nine times larger than the current ones would require Bitcoin’s block size to increase nine times to compensate, but Ivezic explains that’s not the case due to Bitcoin’s Segregated Witness.“Under SegWit, signature bytes fit in the witness and take a quarter as much as other transaction data,” he says. According to estimates published in Blockstream’s earlier research (using slightly different parameters), Bitcoin could run at 6.5 transactions per second if everyone used Taproot’s Schnorr signatures (about 80% of people don’t). The blockchain’s speed would drop to 0.5 TPS if Bitcoin used the NIST-approved lattice-based signature ML-DSA and to just 0.36 TPS using the NIST-approved hash-based signature SPHINCS+.But employing SHRINCS, the blockchain could run at 3 TPS, which is similar to today. SHRINCS was tested in production on the Liquid sidechain in March this year — they even included a copy of the Bitcoin white paper. So if it works in production, everything is fine and Bitcoin’s quantum problems are solved, right?Source: BlockstreamSHRINCS sounds great: What’s the catch?As the BIP warns, “a security proof is TODO” meaning that the research is promising but it is not yet a cryptographically mature proposal that has been fully validated.It also introduces additional complexity to Bitcoin.Every signature uses a new one-time key, and one of the reasons SPHINCS+ is so large is because it wraps all of those one-time keys in a multi-layer hash tree structure that makes the scheme stateless. SHRINCS does away with all of that to save on space, and just stores used keys on your device (which is known as stateful) so it can quickly check keys aren’t being reused. The drawback is that signatures get larger by 16 bytes each time they are used, and if you lose your device, it requires a very large “stateless fallback” transaction around 5,777 bytes to recover.  Yoon Auh, founder of BOLTS Technologies, says in reducing the size, SHRINCS’ designers added “statefulness, compact signing paths, fallbacks, assumptions about how many times a seed is initialized, and rules for when devices must switch to larger stateless signatures.”“That may be pragmatic engineering, but it is also complexity and fragility introduced largely to maximize throughput and minimize computation cycles. In Bitcoin, every new consensus rule becomes a permanent maintenance obligation, and every wallet-side assumption becomes a possible user failure mode.”  Refining SHRINCS and adding SHRIMPSBlockstream has been researching and optimizing the scheme throughout 2026. Just last week it demonstrated that SHRINCS, and a range of other post quantum signature schemes, can effectively run on common hardware wallets. The BIP carries the warning however that this is not without risk:SHRINCS keys generated using hypertree pruning for the stateless component are not compatible with SHRINCS implementations which do not support hypertree pruning. In fact, importing a key across such incompatible implementations may result in lost funds.In March, the lab published a companion scheme called SHRIMPS, which was to be used in conjunction with SHRINCS to enable backup devices initialized from the same seed to be able to sign transactions. The SHRIMPS names has now been dropped for the BIP, and the scheme has been incorporated as a built in stateless path under the same 48 byte public key. It has been optimized with a non standard parameter set to be around 26% smaller than otherwise.Blockstream has also been experimenting with lattice-based signature schemes, which are generally smaller than hash-based schemes but are seen as less proven and less reliable. It’s also considering the use of ZK proof aggregation of signatures. It estimates that if ZK proofs are used in conjunction with SHRINCS, Bitcoin’s speed could double to 6.7 TPS. Blockstream has wisely separated the choice of signatures from questions around increasing the block size or adding ZK proof aggregation, as considering them together could sink the adoption of SHRINCS. Every post quantum upgrade to Bitcoin will be controversial and hard to gather enough support to activate. “The binding constraint in Bitcoin’s quantum migration isn’t cryptography, it’s governance,” says Ivezic. “Between BIP-360, BIP-361, SHRINCS and STARKs, the engineering menu is filling up fast. What Bitcoin lacks is a mechanism for choosing from it before the clock runs out.”Magazine: 5 tech predictions the mainstream media got horribly wrongCointelegraph publishes long-form journalism, analysis and narrative reporting produced by Cointelegraph’s in-house editorial team with subject-matter expertise. All articles are edited and reviewed by Cointelegraph editors in line with our editorial standards. Some articles contain affiliate links, from which Cointelegraph may earn a commission. These relationships do not influence which products we review or our editorial conclusions. Content published in here does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals where appropriate. Cointelegraph maintains full editorial independence.

KOREASouth Korea’s Jeonbuk Bank taps Ripple for cross-border paymentsSouth Korea’s Jeonbuk Bank has partnered with blockchain payments company Ripple to deploy its cross-border payment system for business customers.The service targets businesses including import-export companies, technology startups and online content creators. Ripple said its system would provide the bank with faster, less expensive remittance capabilities than conventional transfers routed through intermediary banks via the SWIFT messaging network, which can take several days. South Korean lawmakers seek expanded FIU powers over unregistered crypto firmsA group of South Korean lawmakers has introduced a bill to amend an existing financial law and expand the Financial Intelligence Unit’s (FIU) authority to investigate unregistered crypto businesses.On Thursday, People Power Party lawmaker Eom Tae-young and nine other lawmakers filed the bill, which aims to add a new provision to the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information. Under the proposal, anyone could report suspected violations of the law to the FIU. The agency could investigate and analyze alleged violations, file complaints with the relevant authorities, request criminal investigations or provide information to investigators. South Korea moves to block Polymarket over gambling concernsThe Korea Media and Communications Commission said Polymarket’s structure and operations amount to illegal gambling despite its noncustodial design and smart contracts.BitGo Korea secures VASP registration for institutional crypto custodyRegulators reportedly accepted BitGo Korea’s registration on Tuesday, two days before stricter VASP entry requirements took effect.South Korea sets up Joint Virtual Asset Crime Investigation UnitThe Serious Crimes Investigation Agency will be formally established in October and include 2567 investigators looking into seven categories. A specific unit will combat phishing and virtual asset crimes.Korea Exchange to open new fractional investment marketNovel Securities Market is due to open in November and trade in fractional investments and non-traditional securities like artworks, real estate and music copyright.JAPANJapan’s SBI leads $68M Fasset round at $1B valuationStablecoin neobanking platform Fasset has raised $68 million in a Series C funding round led by Japan’s SBI Group at a $1 billion valuation.The companies also plan to jointly operate a digital bank in Malaysia and distribute Fasset-issued tokens, according to SBI.Laser Digital gets Japan’s first crypto exchange approval in 4 yearsNomura Group’s digital asset subsidiary, Laser Digital, received authorization to operate as a crypto asset exchange service provider under Japan’s Payment Services Act (PSA)A list issued by Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) on Friday showed that Laser Digital received the country’s first crypto exchange license in four years. The last platform to receive FSA authorization was Binance Japan in October 2022. Metaplanet expands Bitcoin treasury strategy to US with 2,100-BTC Nasdaq playThe proposed deal with Nasdaq-listed Super League Enterprise would give the Tokyo-based company a foothold in US capital markets while using existing Bitcoin rather than additional purchases.Toyota Finance opens tokenized bonds to retail investors via mobile payment appRetail investors can apply to buy the 1 billion yen bond without a securities account and receive perks through Toyota’s payment app.MALAYSIABitdeer signs $400M AI cloud computing deal for Malaysia facilityBitcoin mining company Bitdeer’s artificial intelligence (AI) division, Bitdeer AI, signed a five-year customer deal covering about 50% of the capacity of its A102 Malaysia facility.The deal was signed with an undisclosed AI customer of “high credit quality” and is expected to bring approximately $400 million in total revenue, Bitdeer revealed.Bitdeer AI is targeting 350 megawatts of AI cloud data center capacity by the first quarter of 2028.SINGAPORESingapore and Hong Kong compete on tax for fund managersSingapore’s Monetary Authority has unveiled tax exemptions for fund managers and family offices. It will also expand a scheme to help attract investment professionals into the city state and launch a co-investment scheme for funds that base operations in Singapore. The moves are in response to Hong Kong cutting its own taxes for fund managers as the two crypto hubs compete for business.PAKISTANPakistan opens crypto licensing portalPakistan’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) has opened its licensing portal for crypto exchanges and other virtual asset service providers (VASPs) operating in the country. Companies providing virtual asset services on or before March 5 must submit an application for a no-objection certificate (NOC) by Sept. 5 or cease operations, according to the PVARA licensing website. “The licensing window is officially open, creating a clear pathway for businesses to enter Pakistan’s regulated virtual asset market, with defined standards for consumer protection, governance, compliance and market integrity,” PVARA said on LinkedIn. UAECapital.com plans UAE spot crypto services after affiliate wins licenceTrading platform and contracts for difference (CFD) broker Capital.com plans to offer spot crypto services to clients in the United Arab Emirates after its affiliate, Capital Vault, secured a virtual-asset license from the country’s Capital Market Authority (CMA). Once the service goes live, UAE clients will be able to buy and hold actual crypto through the Capital.com app, with Capital Vault providing execution, custody and settlement.  Bitcoin.com integrates UAE-registered US dollar stablecoin into self-custodial walletThe integration expands access to USDU, the UAE’s first central bank-registered US dollar stablecoin, as it builds distribution beyond institutional channels.HONG KONGOKX restricts Claude access for Hong Kong employeesOKX was forced to restrict employees in Hong Kong and those traveling through China, from using Anthropic’s Claude artificial-intelligence model after the company account was temporarily suspended for not complying with geographic restrictions. OKX reportedly spends up to $8 million a month on tokens across various LLMs.Standard Chartered to distribute HKDAPIt’s reportedly the first bank to distribute Hong Kong’s new regulated stablecoin HKDAP, which is backed by Anchorpoint Digital.Alibaba raises $10.2 billion to fund AI ambitionsShares in China’s Alibaba slid after it sold off $10.2 billion shares at an 8.7% discount to help fund its AI ambitions. The money raised will fund chips, AI infrastructure and models.TAIWANTaiwan busts money laundering network using USDTTaiwanese authorities have reportedly dismantled a money laundering network that has been purchasing USDT via Hong Kong exchanges. Cointelegraph publishes long-form journalism, analysis and narrative reporting produced by Cointelegraph’s in-house editorial team with subject-matter expertise. All articles are edited and reviewed by Cointelegraph editors in line with our editorial standards. Some articles contain affiliate links, from which Cointelegraph may earn a commission. These relationships do not influence which products we review or our editorial conclusions. Content published in here does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals where appropriate. Cointelegraph maintains full editorial independence.