Bitcoin Quantum Defense Drops 79% in Cost as NYSE, Raiffeisen Push Tokenization

Three developments shaped crypto on Wednesday, spanning Bitcoin security upgrades, institutional tokenization, and European banking expansion into digital assets.

StarkWare reported that the estimated computational cost of preparing a quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction has fallen to roughly $67, down approximately 79% from the roughly $320 spent on the first such mainnet transaction in August. The reduction came after participants in the Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Optimization Challenge identified ways to reduce GPU computation required to build a quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction. StarkWare characterized the optimization as moving the experimental defense from a costly demonstration toward something a holder with a large unexposed balance might realistically use in an emergency. The defense does not require changes to Bitcoin's consensus rules, though the results so far have only been demonstrated in benchmark tests.

The New York Stock Exchange signed a memorandum of understanding with Blockchain.com to bring tokenized US stocks and ETFs to Blockchain.com users through NYSE's planned digital trading platform. Under the proposal, Blockchain.com would distribute tokenized equities and ETFs traded on NYSE's digital alternative trading system, subject to regulatory approval. The two companies also plan to exchange market data, with ICE Data Services distributing Blockchain.com crypto data and Blockchain.com incorporating select ICE and NYSE feeds. The move places NYSE alongside Kraken, Nasdaq, Binance, Coinbase, and Robinhood in developing tokenized equity offerings. According to RWA.xyz, tokenized stocks reached $3.14 billion in distributed value as of Wednesday, up more than 18% over the past month.

Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International expanded its crypto ambitions through a new partnership with Bitpanda, enabling crypto trading across 11 European markets. The collaboration extends Raiffeisen's digital asset footprint as traditional financial institutions continue integrating regulated crypto services for retail and institutional clients. The partnership follows a broader trend of European banks leveraging established crypto infrastructure providers to offer trading services without building internal stacks from scratch.