“EF researcher Justin Drake says in a new post quantum team will drive wallet safety upgrades, research prizes and test networks as quantum timelines shorten.”, — write: www.coindesk.com
EF researcher Justin Drake said the new group will be led by Thomas Coratger, with support from Emile, whom Drake described as a key talent behind “leanVM.”
Drake framed leanVM as a core part of Ethereum’s broader approach to post quantum security, arguing that timelines are accelerating and that Ethereum should move into a build phase rather than keep work in the background.
Today marks an inflection in the Ethereum Foundation’s long-term quantum strategy.We’ve formed a new Post Quantum (PQ) team, led by the brilliant Thomas Coratger (@tcoratger). Joining him is Emile, one of the world-class talents behind leanVM. leanVM is the cryptographic…
— Justin Drake (@drakefjustin) January 23, 2026
The announcement comes as crypto markets have become more sensitive to quantum risk headlines, even if the practical threat remains a longer dated problem.
Quantum computing uses new types of processors that could one day break today’s encryption much faster than normal computers. Blockchain developers worry it could eventually expose wallet keys, forcing networks to upgrade cryptography well before that risk becomes real.
The bigger issue for large networks is not a single breakthrough moment but the time it takes to ship a safe transition, update wallets and move users onto new formats without breaking daily usage.
Drake outlined several near-term steps. A bi-weekly developer session focused on post quantum transactions is expected to start next month, led by Antonio Sanso. The agenda is aimed at user facing defenses, including dedicated cryptographic tools inside the protocol, account abstraction paths and longer term work on aggregating transaction signatures using leanVM.
EF is also putting money behind cryptography research. Drake said it is announcing a $1 million Poseidon Prize to harden the Poseidon hash function and pointed to another $1 million post quantum initiative called the Proximity Prize.
On the engineering side, Drake said multi-client post quantum consensus dev networks are already running, with multiple teams participating and weekly interoperability calls to coordinate.
Ethereum plans more community work as well. Drake said the EF will host a post quantum event in October and a post quantum day in late March ahead of EthCC, alongside education efforts that include a video series and enterprise focused materials.
Others in the ecosystem echoed the urgency. Pantera Capital XX Franklin Bi argued that traditional finance could take years to upgrade systems, while blockchains may be able to coordinate a full stack software transition faster.
KuCoin captured a record share of centralized exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the broader crypto market.
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per monthmarking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralized exchange volumeas KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumeswhich slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly spliteach exceeding $500 billion for the year, signaling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activityreinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activityindicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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Ethereum’s daily active addresses climbed above major layer-2 networks in January as lower fees revived on-chain activity.
- Ethereum mainnet daily active addresses briefly topped 1.3 million, as December’s Fusaka upgrade lowered transaction fees and drew activity back from layer-2 networks.
- Security researchers say much of the apparent growth in new addresses stems from address poisoning attacks, in which attackers send tiny stablecoin transfers to millions of wallets to trick users into copying look-alike addresses.
- The cheap post-upgrade fees have both revived legitimate stablecoin usage on Ethereum and enabled large-scale spam campaigns, inflating headline activity metrics while contributing to at least $740,000 in confirmed losses.
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