Securitize Expands Tokenized RWA to Ink and Solana; UBS Tests ZKsync Validium for Fractional Gold, Thailand Plans 10B Baht Bond-Backed Stablecoin.
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[Blockchain] Securitize Expands Tokenized RWA to Ink and Solana; UBS Tests ZKsync Validium for Fractional Gold, Thailand Plans 10B Baht Bond-Backed Stablecoin. Securitize has announced integrations with both Ink (Kraken’s L2) and Solana to expand its tokenized real-world assets offering, featuring the Apollo Diversified Credit Securitize Fund (ACRED). The expansion leverages Ink's DeFi ecosystem and Solana's efficient architecture for faster trading and settlement.? Meanwhile, Texture Capital Holdings has integrated with the Canton Network, a privacy-focused blockchain for institutional assets. The company plans to deploy its Alternative Trading System and transfer agent services on Canton in the coming weeks, facilitating institutional digital securities transactions. Also, Circle Research has released Recibo, an open-source smart contract allowing encrypted messages to be added to ERC-20 token transfers. This addresses the lack of memo capabilities in blockchain payments, which are essential for accounting and regulatory compliance. Recibo works with standard ERC-20 tokens and supports gasless transactions via ERC-2612 and ERC-3009 protocols. The system enables merchants to attach receipts, users to include invoice details, and financial institutions to add payment messages. While adding about 10,000 gas overhead per transaction, Recibo supports various encryption formats and use cases. And, UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, has tested ZKsync Validium for modernizing its Key4 Gold digital investment platform. The proof-of-concept aimed to enhance UBS Gold Network's scalability, privacy, and interoperability. Key4 Gold offers retail clients fractional gold investments with real-time pricing, liquidity, and secure storage. The successful testnet deployment demonstrated ZKsync Validium's ability to handle private transactions, bridge stablecoins from Ethereum, and process high-volume transactions cost-effectively through off-chain data storage. In other news, Thailand's Finance Ministry plans to launch a 10 billion baht stablecoin backed by government bonds. Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira announced the initiative will democratize investment access by tokenizing government bonds. A central platform for secondary market trading will be developed, initially for new bond issues.?
[AI] Alibaba Launches Qwen2.5-Max AI Model, Outperforming Rivals; Meta AI Gains Personalization Features, OpenAI Prepares New Models, and Google Unveils ‘Ask for Me’ AI Call Assistant. Alibaba has released Qwen2.5-Max, a large-scale MoE model trained on over 20 trillion tokens with SFT and RLHF methodologies. The model outperforms DeepSeek V3 in several benchmarks including Arena-Hard, LiveBench, and LiveCodeBench, while showing competitive results in others like MMLU-Pro. The model's base version also demonstrates advantages over other open-weight models. Qwen2.5-Max is now available through Alibaba Cloud's API service and Qwen Chat platform, with OpenAI-compatible API integration. Alibaba aims to further enhance the model's capabilities through scaled reinforcement learning. Meanwhile, Meta has announced enhancements to Meta AI, its chatbot, across Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp in the US and Canada. The AI can now remember user preferences from conversations and access users' Facebook and Instagram data for personalized recommendations. While users can delete conversation memories, they cannot opt out of Meta AI using their account information. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg promotes this as a personalization feature, though concerns about data privacy and trust remain. Also, OpenAI is preparing to launch two new AI models: o3-mini and o3-mini-high, part of the o3 family. These models are designed to improve reasoning capabilities in coding, science, and math while delivering faster responses than previous versions. Both models reportedly outperform o1 pro in speed and sometimes in reasoning ability. And, Google has launched "Ask for Me," an AI tool that makes phone calls to businesses on behalf of users. Currently available to select users, the feature uses speech recognition and natural language processing to handle inquiries about store hours, product availability, and reservations. Building on Google's Duplex technology, the system includes transparency measures like disclosing its AI nature to businesses. The feature aims to streamline business interactions and save users time, with broader rollout planned later this year.
[Quantum Technology] SoftBank and Quantinuum Plan Japan’s First Quantum Data Center; ESA Advances EuroQCI, IBM, and Telefónica Advance Quantum-Safe Security. ?SoftBank and Quantinuum have announced a partnership to advance practical quantum computing applications, including plans for a quantum data center in Japan. The collaboration aims to address AI's current limitations by combining quantum computing with traditional systems to solve complex optimization and simulation challenges. The partnership focuses on developing cost-sharing models, identifying specific use cases in quantum chemistry and network analysis, and improving quantum hardware. The initiative, timed with the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology in 2025, signals a shift from theoretical research to practical quantum computing applications. Meanwhile, SEALSQ has partnered with OISTE.ORG Foundation to develop a Post-Quantum Cryptography Root of Trust, launching in Q1 2025. The solution will use advanced algorithms like CRYSTALS-Dilithium and FALCON to protect against quantum computing threats. The company is also launching a 'Quantum Lab' for PQC-PKI platform evaluation, integrating with various security modules. The technology targets IoT, government, finance, healthcare, and telecommunications sectors for quantum-safe data protection. Also, the European Space Agency and European Commission have finalized their agreement on the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI), a quantum-secure network to protect critical European infrastructure and data. The system will use quantum key distribution (QKD) through both terrestrial fiber-optic cables and a satellite constellation. ESA is leading the space component through its Scylight program, including the Eagle-1 satellite launching in 2026. The project, supported by all 27 EU Member States, aims to establish Europe as a leader in quantum capabilities by 2030. And, Telefónica Tech and IBM have partnered to develop quantum-safe cybersecurity solutions that protect against future quantum computing threats. IBM will integrate its quantum-safe technologies, including Guardium Quantum Safe and cryptographic vulnerability detection tools, with Telefónica Tech's managed security services. The collaboration includes establishing a joint use case office focused on secure communications and critical infrastructure protection.?
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[General technology] X Partners with Visa for ‘X Money Account’, Phishing Attacks, GitHub Vulnerabilities, and DeepSeek Data Leak Uncovered ? X (formerly Twitter) has announced a partnership with Visa to launch "X Money Account," a payment service enabling digital wallets and peer-to-peer payments on the platform. CEO Linda Yaccarino revealed the U.S.-based service will launch later this year using Visa Direct technology. This development aligns with Elon Musk's vision of creating an "everything app" similar to WeChat. Meanwhile, a phishing campaign targeting EU countries since July 2024 has been identified by Cisco. It deploys multiple malware types using PureCrypter, including Agent Tesla, Snake Keylogger, and a new backdoor called TorNet. The attacks begin with fake financial emails containing .tgz attachments, which execute a .NET loader to deploy PureCrypter. The malware performs anti-detection checks before launching TorNet, which enables communication over the TOR network. The campaign coincides with increased use of hidden text salting in email threats to evade detection. Also, multiple security vulnerabilities dubbed Clone2Leak have been discovered in GitHub Desktop and related Git projects that could expose users' Git credentials. The flaws, including CVE-2025-23040 and CVE-2024-50338, stem from improper handling of Git Credential Protocol messages, allowing attackers to exploit carriage return characters in malicious URLs to leak credentials. The vulnerabilities affect GitHub Desktop, Git Credential Manager, Git LFS, and GitHub CLI. Git has addressed these issues in version v2.48.1, and users are advised to update or avoid cloning untrusted repositories with --recurse-submodules. And, DeepSeek, the rising AI startup, exposed a ClickHouse database containing over a million log lines of sensitive data, including chat history, secret keys, and API credentials. The security flaw, discovered by Wiz researcher Gal Nagli, allowed unauthorized database access without authentication. While DeepSeek has fixed the vulnerability, the company faces additional scrutiny over privacy policies. The incident coincides with regulatory inquiries from Irish data protection authorities and ban from Italy.
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