Standard Chartered and OKX Launch Collateral Mirroring Programme, Broadridge and Fnality Demonstrate Interoperability, Ripple Acquires Hidden Road...
Welcome to QX Snapshots - a weekly recap of the key news on emerging technologies. In this newsletter, you will get a "digest" of the latest info on Enterprise Blockchain, AI, Quantum Technology, and more.
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[Blockchain] Standard Chartered and OKX Launch Collateral Mirroring Programme, Broadridge and Fnality Demonstrate Interoperability, Ripple Acquires Hidden Road, and Taurus Launches Global Interbank Network. Standard Chartered and OKX have launched a collateral mirroring programme, enabling institutional clients to use cryptocurrencies and tokenised money market funds as off-exchange collateral for trading. Franklin Templeton's money market funds will be the first to be offered under the programme. The partnership aims to drive growth and safeguard client assets, setting an industry standard for institutional clients to deploy trading capital at scale. Meanwhile, Broadridge and Fnality have completed a collaboration demonstrating interoperability between Broadridge's Distributed Ledger Repo (DLR) platform and Fnality's Payment System (FnPS). This showcases the potential of tokenization in financial markets for real-time delivery versus payment (DvP) settlement. The solution uses digital representations of funds held at central banks to settle intraday repo transactions, reducing operational risk and driving efficiency. Also, Ripple has agreed to acquire Hidden Road, a global prime broker, for $1.25 billion. The deal makes Ripple the first crypto company to own a global, multi-asset prime broker. Hidden Road, a fast-growing prime broker, will leverage Ripple's balance sheet to expand its capacity and become one of the largest non-bank prime brokers globally. The acquisition will enable Ripple to bring the promise of digital assets to institutional customers at scale, bridging traditional finance and decentralized finance. And, Taurus has launched Taurus-NETWORK, a global interbank network for digital asset collaboration. The network connects regulated financial institutions, enabling secure and efficient collaboration, collateral management, and settlement. With over 35 banking institutions participating, Taurus-NETWORK offers a robust ecosystem for institutional players to tokenize, store, exchange, and move digital assets. The network reduces counterparty risk, minimizes settlement risks, and automates operations, making it a new standard in security and counterparty risk management. Major financial institutions such as Arab Bank Switzerland, Capital Union Bank, and Swissquote have already joined the network.
[AI] China Invests $8.2 Billion in AI, Amazon Launches Polly Voice Service, Cloudflare and Hugging Face Partner on WebRTC, and Google Unveils Agent2Agent Protocol and more. China has established a 60 billion yuan ($8.2 billion) state fund to invest in early-stage artificial intelligence (AI) projects. The fund, managed by Guozhi Investment, will support China's state-led strategy through equity investments, with a focus on the AI supply chain. The fund aims to develop embodied AI, intelligent systems that can interact with physical environments, and will also support local companies in the southern tech hub of Shenzhen. Meanwhile, Amazon has released Polly, a fully-managed service that generates voice on demand from text. Polly uses deep learning technologies to convert text into an audio stream, offering dozens of lifelike voices across multiple languages. The service can be integrated into existing applications to make them voice-ready. Users can add speech to RSS feeds, websites, and videos, and create voiceovers for animations and games. Polly also allows for customizable speech, such as adjusting phrasing and emphasis, and automatically adjusting speech duration for multilingual dubbing. The service can be used to generate voices that emotionally connect with customers. Also, Cloudflare and Hugging Face have partnered to provide enterprise-grade WebRTC infrastructure to FastRTC developers. The partnership gives developers instant access to a global network of TURN servers, enabling reliable real-time communication across different network environments. And, Google announced Agent2Agent (A2A), an open protocol that enables AI agents to communicate, exchange information, and coordinate actions on top of various enterprise platforms or applications. A2A is designed to promote interoperability among AI agents, regardless of their underlying technologies. The protocol is supported by over 50 technology partners, including Atlassian, Box, and Salesforce. It has also introduced Firebase Studio and the Agent Development Kit (ADK), an open-source framework that simplifies the full stack end-to-end development of agents and multi-agent systems. ADK provides tools for building, interacting, evaluating, and deploying agents.
[Quantum Technology] UK Launches £42 Million Quantum Hub, Chinese Researchers Use Quantum Computer to Enhance AI, and EU-Korea Partnership Fosters Quantum Cooperation. The UK has launched the Integrated Quantum Networks Hub, a £42 million ($54 million) project to develop scalable, secure quantum communications infrastructure. Led by Heriot-Watt University, the hub brings together 12 universities, 2 national laboratories, and 40 industry partners to advance core technologies such as quantum memories, light sources, and detectors. The goal is to deploy the world's most advanced quantum network infrastructure by 2035, with a focus on metropolitan and intercontinental quantum communication. The hub will also contribute to the development of quantum-secure communication protocols and interface with existing fiber-optic infrastructure. Meanwhile, Chinese researchers have used a domestically developed quantum computer, Origin Wukong, to fine-tune a billion-parameter AI model, claiming a global first. The experiment showed improved model performance, with a 15% drop in training loss and a 14% increase in accuracy. The researchers used the quantum computer to reduce the model's parameters by 75% and still achieved significant improvements. This demonstrates the potential of quantum computing to enhance AI performance and could lead to more efficient models that require less memory and energy. The experiment is a significant step forward in the field of quantum computing. Also, the EU-Korea Digital Partnership and Horizon Europe Researchers' Networking Forum on Quantum Science and Technology was held in Brussels on April 9-10, 2025. Over 60 experts from both regions discussed quantum computing, communication, and sensing. The forum aimed to align research agendas, build institutional bridges, and prepare for EU-Korea research cooperation under Horizon Europe. Quantum technologies are poised to reshape industries, national security, and scientific discovery, and the EU-Korea partnership seeks to ensure these technologies serve humanity's best interests and reinforce innovation capabilities. The partnership aims to foster joint leadership in critical technologies.
[General technology] Microsoft to Cut Jobs, Europol Busts SmokeLoader Botnet, and CISA Warns of Fast Flux Threat. Microsoft is planning another round of job cuts, focusing on middle managers and non-developers, with the goal of increasing the ratio of coders to non-coders. The company is exploring ways to streamline teams and reduce costs, with some teams aiming to reduce their "PM ratio" to 10:1 or lower. This ratio is seen as a proxy for the number of coders. The cuts could include lower performers, with those receiving a "Impact 80" or lower score in performance reviews potentially being terminated. The exact number of jobs to be cut is unclear, but could be significant. Meanwhile, Europol has arrested individuals linked to the SmokeLoader malware, a pay-per-install botnet. The arrests were made as part of Operation Endgame, a coordinated effort to dismantle online infrastructure associated with multiple malware loader operations. Authorities tracked down the customers of SmokeLoader by analyzing a database seized from the botnet. Several suspects were found to have cooperated and had their devices examined for digital evidence. The arrests are part of a broader effort to target the "demand side" of the cybercrime ecosystem and disrupt malware loader operations. And, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and FBI have warned about the use of "fast flux" by threat actors to obscure command-and-control (C2) channels and host malicious websites. Fast flux involves rapidly changing DNS records to evade detection and takedowns. This technique has been used by groups such as Gamaredon. To secure against fast flux, organizations are recommended to block IP addresses, sinkhole malicious domains, and implement enhanced monitoring and phishing awareness training. The technique is considered a national security threat and requires significant skill to run independently.
Anchorage Digital becomes newest digital asset service provider for BlackRock - Anchorage
Centrifuge to launch on Ozean to bring high-quality RWAs to Port - Clearpool
Kraken Partners with Mastercard to Bring Bitcoin Payments to Over 150 Million Merchants - Nasdaq
Euroclear joins HKMA’s Project Ensemble - Euroclear
Bitcoin: A Global Liquidity Barometer - Lyn Alden/Sam Callahan
Central Bank of Bahrain grants license to BPay Global - Central Bank of Bahrain
BOE Warns Deviant AI on Trading Floors Risks Triggering a Crash - Bloomberg