Quantus and NEAR Foundation host Quantum + Privacy Day as token2049 side event in Singapore. Bitwise, Grayscale, Dragonfly, Balaji Srinivasan, Zcash's Zooko Wilcox, and NEAR's Illia Polosukhin convene to plan crypto's migration to quantum-safe, privacy-preserving infrastructure Singapore, October 8, 2026 - Quantus and NEAR Foundation will host Quantum + Privacy Day on Thursday, October 8, 2026, as a side event of TOKEN2049 Singapore. Built for security researchers, application builders, and capital allocators, the event features keynotes and panel discussions with crypto and finance industry luminaries such as Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR, Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise, Krista Lynch of Grayscale, Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly, and Balaji Srinivasan, angel investor and founder of Network School. Quantum + Privacy Day will take place at Tower Club, Republic Plaza, from 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. SGT, followed by an evening of networking. The program brings cryptographers, protocol builders, investors, and researchers into one room to dive into the ways the industry can protect blockchain networks from the increasingly powerful quantum computers which will soon have the ability to break the cryptography securing them today. A quantum computer that forges signatures can not only corrupt blockchain ledgers but also strip the privacy from every transaction they record. The conversations and keynote presentations at Quantum + Privacy Day will look at both quantum-safe cryptographic schemes for securing assets, as well as privacy infrastructure for encrypting assets. Quantus CEO Chris Smith will open the program with a keynote on the quantum threat and what the crypto industry needs to do to address it. Later speakers will debate Bitcoin's privacy model, whether pre-quantum chains remain viable, and what quantum risk means for digital stores of value. Raghav Gulati and Quantus co-founder Joe Mattia will also discuss what comes after mainnet launch and how a new asset reaches the market. Later sessions will focus on implementation and migration, as speakers explain what it takes to bring post-quantum cryptography into production. They will discuss algorithms, key exchange, and NIST standards, along with ways users can protect their assets before every Layer 1 upgrade. Smith will speak alongside Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR, and Alex Shevchenko, CEO of Aurora Labs. Zooko Wilcox of Zcash and Alex Pruden, CEO of Project Eleven, are also confirmed. "We are very excited about our partnership with NEAR. Both Quantus and Near support post-quantum transactions today and are therefore leaders in the great quantum migration," says Christopher Smith, co-founder and CEO of Quantus. "Our Quantum and Privacy event is bringing together thought leaders from across the blockchain space to discuss how to adapt to the changing cryptographic landscape." The investor side of the program brings Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise; Krista Lynch of Grayscale; and Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly. Balaji Srinivasan, angel investor and founder of Network School, joins them. Quip Network co-founders Colton Dillion and Richard Carback round out the lineup, together with Raghav Gulati, former CEO of CoinList. The Rollup will livestream the talks, and additional speakers will be announced ahead of the event. "Quantum computing poses a threat to the cryptography underpinning all current blockchain security," said Illia Polosukhin, Co-Founder of NEAR. "Quantum + Privacy Day is a chance to hear from top researchers, builders, and investors and discuss how infrastructure providers, wallets, and builders are preparing for the post-quantum reality and building toward a more resilient, privacy-preserving onchain economy." NEAR has already shipped post-quantum signing to mainnet, using ML-DSA, the NIST-standardized signature scheme Quantus also builds on. The release is the first milestone in NEAR's quantum security roadmap. The program is built for security researchers, application builders, and capital allocators. Exchanges, custodians, and institutions holding assets on chain face the same migration on their own roadmaps. The event is sponsored by Project Eleven, Zcash, Vizor Wallet, Quip Network, Keystone, and Network School, several of which also have founders on the program. After the talks, guests can stay for drinks, food, networking, and a casual Super Smash Bros. tournament. Space is limited, and registration is open at https://luma.com/jtof4o9b. About Quantus. Quantus is quantum-secure encrypted money. It's a layer 1 proof-of-work blockchain with a 21 million supply cap and post-quantum security, and it is private by default. Quantus uses ML-DSA for key generation and transaction signatures, plus zero-knowledge proofs for scaling and privacy. Quantus also built migration.fail, a public tracker of how much of the crypto industry is still vulnerable to quantum computing. About NEAR. NEAR is the open infrastructure powering the agent economy. NEAR's vertically integrated stack connects NEAR Intents for cross-chain execution, NEAR AI for confidential and verifiable AI, IronClaw for a secure agent harness, and sharded blockchain infrastructure for 1M+ TPS scalability. near.com is NEAR's unified front-end: one account, 30+ chains, and confidential cross-chain swaps, perps, RWAs, and earn in a single interface. With $30B+ in cross-chain volume and AI integrations with Abound, Brave Nightly, the Government of Bermuda, OpenMind, Venice AI, and more, NEAR is where agents transact. Learn more at https://www.near.org/. Total Views: 86 The Blockopedia, is an independent news website that covers trending stories about blockchain, NFTs, Metaverse, Gamefi, Web3, and all leading innovative and futuristic technologies. In the new era of rapid technological advancements, The Blockopedia aim to keep you informed and provide you with the best scoops available. October 7, 2026 October 6, 2026

Compound bets $52M on institutional pivot as COMP jumps 10%. * Compound has approved a record $52 million development budget and rebuilt its leadership around traditional-finance veterans as it pivots toward institutions. * COMP has risen by over 10% in 24 hours as it trades around $18 following the announcement. * About $28 million funds operations and Compound V4's hub-and-spoke design, with $8 million to $10 million earmarked for institutional partnerships. Compound, one of the first protocols to make crypto lending work without a bank, has approved a record $52 million development budget and rebuilt its leadership around traditional-finance veterans. It is also wagering its next chapter on institutions, which is seen as a move away from retail yield-chasers who once drove DeFi. Its native token, COMP, seems to have received a boost as a result of the announcement, as it has gone up by over 10% in 24 hours. Projects that grew up serving retail now court banks, asset managers, and compliance departments to find their footing again, and Compound seems to be moving in that direction. Compound's foundation wrote on X that the protocol is "entering its next era." From $12 billion to $1.2 billion. The total value locked (TVL) on Compound has fallen to around $1.2 billion, which is a decline of around 90% from the $12 billion the protocol held at its September 2021 peak per DeFillama. The vast majority of the TVL is on Ethereum, with Arbitrum coming a distant second. Compound's figures are a far cry from Aave's, which is the leading protocol in the DeFi lending space with a TVL of over $14.6 billion. Ironically, Compound helped invent this category when it launched in 2018 and, by its own accounting, has processed around $480 billion in deposits and borrowing since. However, the protocol's growth stalled following the end of the incentive programs that helped to push up its metrics. While COMP received a boost, it still trades far below its glory days. It currently trades around $18; however, it is still down by 98% from its 2021 record. How does Compound plan on spending its $52 million? The budget passed through the Compound DAO, and $14 million is cleared for immediate use. The rest unlocks in tranches tied to milestones, a structure that keeps the development team on a performance leash funded by the treasury. The money splits roughly in two, with about $28 million for operations and the engineering behind a new protocol version, Compound V4, and $24 million for growth. Of that growth pool, $8 million to $10 million is earmarked for institutional partnerships rather than the old playbook of paying liquidity providers to boost headline numbers. V4's centerpiece is a "hub-and-spoke" design, which routes capital through a central hub instead of walling it off in separate markets, an approach meant to give professional counterparties tighter risk controls. Compound stated that more than 10 partners have committed, with over 20 more in talks. A bench built from traditional finance. The leadership overhaul reads as a statement of intent. The new team includes Chief Operating Officer Christopher Donovan, previously COO at the Near Foundation, and Chief Product Officer Steven Liu, who grew Maple Finance's assets from $500 million to $5 billion. Aaron Schnarch, former CEO of Coinbase Custody, joins as an executive director, with other hires drawn from Anchorage Digital, HSBC, Broadridge Financial, and Maple. In a statement, Schnarch said, "DeFi is a remarkable innovation; however, it has achieved limited institutional adoption." He added that current products "fall short of meeting the traditional finance bar." However, not everyone is sold on credentials alone, and one of them is Himanshu Sahay of Arch Lending, who said that the budget and bench amount to "a serious move" but warned that institutions "aren't underwriting teams, they're underwriting structures." Why is everyone now chasing institutions? Compound is late to a race it once could have led. Across crypto this year, the institutional turn has become the default survival strategy. In July, former Ethereum Foundation staff launched Ethereum Institutional, a non-profit "front door" for banks and asset managers backed by Bitmine, SharpLink, and Joseph Lubin, Cryptopolitan reported. Tokenized real-world assets climbed to about $65 billion by May, and more than 2,000 institutions disclosed Bitcoin holdings through spot ETFs in Q1. Ran Hammer of Orbs said, "Retail participation is a fraction of what it was," as the chain "quietly become a venue for settlement, execution and interaction between financial institutions." Standard Chartered projects the DeFi sector could reach $2.7 trillion by 2030. FAQs. What is Compound's $52 million program? It is a two-year, DAO-approved development budget, described as the largest in the protocol's history, to build Compound V4 and bring institutional credit onchain, with $14 million cleared for immediate use and the rest released in milestone-based tranches. Why has Compound's total value locked fallen so far? Who leads Compound's new team? Disclaimer. The information provided is not trading advice. Cryptopolitan.com holds no liability for any investments made based on the information provided on this page. Cryptopolitan strongly recommend independent research and/or consultation with a qualified professional before making any investment decisions. Hannah is a writer and editor with nearly a decade of blog writing and event reporting experience in the crypto space. At Cryptopolitan, Hannah contributes to the news page, reporting and analyzing the latest developments in DeFi, RWA, crypto regulation, AI and frontier tech industries. She graduated from Arcadia university with a degree in Business Administration. TABLE OF CONTENT

NEAR price eyes $2.50 after bullish technical signals and AI expansion. What to know: * The NEAR price is trading near $2.03 as bullish indicators point to a potential breakout toward $2.50. * Analysts highlight NEAR's relative strength, with moving averages signaling growing buying momentum. * The NEAR Foundation joined the x402 Foundation to support decentralized AI infrastructure. NEAR protocol (NEAR) is gaining attention as improving technical indicators point to potential bullish momentum for the NEAR price. Meanwhile, the NEAR Foundation's participation in a major AI infrastructure initiative reinforces its commitment to advancing decentralized technology, strengthening its long-term ecosystem growth. At the time of writing, NEAR is trading at $2.03 with a 24-hour trading volume of $173.52 million and a market capitalization of $2.64 billion. Despite the 2.96% loss over the last 24 hours, the Bitcoin price structure and network growth point to a bullish reversal ahead. NEAR price signals bullish breakout to $2.50. According to the crypto analyst Altcoin Sherpa, the NEAR price is showing notable relative strength compared with many digital assets as its price consolidates around key technical levels. Analysts believe the alignment of multiple short-term moving averages reflects improving market structure, suggesting buyers remain active and the token could be preparing for a stronger directional move if momentum continues building. The participants in the market are looking out into the broader crypto space, especially focusing on the performance of Bitcoin. If the Bitcoin price continues to perform strongly, then the NEAR price can be taken up to the next level around $2.50. The breakout of the current consolidation pattern could help restore buying interest. NEAR Foundation backs AI agent infrastructure. The data from the NEAR protocol further highlighted that, in conjunction with the x402 Foundation, the NEAR Foundation is now working on developing open infrastructure for the emerging economy of AI agents. Under this partnership, NEAR will facilitate the development of decentralized technologies that would ensure security, compatibility, and a seamless user experience for software agents in both blockchain and non-blockchain networks. The collaboration brings together tech and financial giants like AWS, American Express, MasterCard, Stripe, and Visa to develop a technology stack. The collaboration is focused on common payment infrastructure and AI that preserves privacy, thereby creating a strong foundation for the creation of autonomous digital systems. Despite the bullish price predictions and strong network growth, the NEAR price is still moving in the downward direction. This move is also backed by the general trend in the crypto market as the BTC price is currently moving sideways. What comes next? Future prospects for the NEAR price will be dependent on maintaining the positive momentum while breaking above critical levels of resistance. With Bitcoin continuing to rise, NEAR would see an extension of its rally towards $2.50. On the other hand, continued progress in the development of the AI framework by the foundation could positively affect the investor sentiment and NEAR's future prospects. This article contains market analysis and price predictions. These are not guarantees. Crypto markets are volatile. Always DYOR. Not financial advice.