Today in crypto, Ethereum developers created a team to combat quantum computing risks, Tether said it would hire a “Big Four” accounting firm to conduct a full audit of its reserves and European Central Bank Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said private digital money cannot scale Europe’s tokenized markets on its own.
Ethereum devs up security efforts with “Post-Quantum” team
A group of Ethereum developers has launched a resource hub and a new Post-Quantum team on Tuesday, focused on protecting the blockchain from future quantum computing threats.
Members of the Ethereum Foundation who back the initiative said the team is planning to implement quantum solutions into Ethereum at the protocol level by 2029, with solutions targeting the execution layer to follow.
“Migrating a decentralized, global protocol takes years of coordination, engineering, and formal verification,” the team said. “The work must begin well before the threat arrives.”
Concerns that quantum computers could eventually break blockchain cryptography have fueled industry-wide fear around private keys and wallet security, with most analysts agreeing that quantum computing poses some level of threat to crypto.
Tether says “Big Four” firm to handle first full audit of USDT reserves
Stablecoin issuer Tether said it would hire one of the “Big Four” accounting firms to conduct a full audit of its reserves for the first time.
In a Tuesday notice, Tether said that the accounting firm — which it did not disclose — would complete a “full independent financial statement audit” for the stablecoin issuer, including for its US dollar-pegged USDt (USDT).
Tether said the firm was “selected through a competitive process,” according to chief financial officer Simon McWilliams. Cointelegraph reached out to the company for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.
The audit will include a review of its assets, reserves, and tokenised liabilities, as well as an “assessment of Tether’s systems, internal controls, and financial reporting.”
“For the hundreds of millions of people and businesses who rely on USDT every day, this audit is not just a compliance exercise; it is about accountability, resilience, and confidence in the infrastructure they depend on,” said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.
ECB says stablecoins, tokenized deposits need central bank money to scale
Tokenized deposits and stablecoins need tokenized central bank money as a public settlement anchor if Europe’s tokenized financial markets are to scale, Piero Cipollone, a member of the European Central Bank’s Executive Board, said on Monday.
Cipollone pointed to Pontes, the Eurosystem’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) settlement initiative, which is designed to connect market DLT platforms with the Eurosystem’s TARGET Services and provide settlement in central bank money.
“Without tokenised central bank money, a seller of a tokenised security may receive payment in an asset they are not comfortable holding – one exposed to price volatility or credit risk – which limits the market’s ability to scale,” Cipollone said in a speech at the House of the Euro in Brussels on Monday.
The ECB said Pontes is due for an initial launch in the third quarter of 2026, allowing market participants to settle DLT-based transactions in central bank money. The comments build on the ECB’s broader Appia initiative, published on March 11, which is intended to produce a blueprint for a future European tokenized financial ecosystem by 2028.
