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State Street IM appoints BlackRock's MacLeod to digital wealth platform. Following an eight year career at BlackRock's digital distribution team 27 July 2026 State Street Investment Management has appointed former BlackRock co-head of digital distribution Henry MacLeod as managing director, head of direct retail and digital wealth international at the firm. He will lead the team's international digital wealth business and efforts to connect digital wealth and ETF's as a service. The firm's NextGen strategy is focused on supporting clients through capabilities in ETF's, capital markets, custody and servicing and FX. In his new role, he will report to Matteo Andreetto, global head of NextGen business development and digital wealth at State Street, who said MacLeod had joined the team at a "perfect time". Andreetto said: "Platforms no longer want access only to products; they want the ability to build investment propositions - and therefore to create deeper relationships with their clients. "His experience in building partnerships with some of Europe's most important digital investment platforms will be invaluable as we accelerate our international direct retail and digital wealth strategy and continue to position State Street Investment Management as a partner for the next generation of wealth platforms." Previously, MacLeod served at BlackRock for eight years, having started as a member of the UK digital wealth team. He was responsible for partnerships with European digital investment platforms and worked to expand retail investing through digital products. Before this, he served on the advisory panel at the Investment Association, as well as a 10-year stint at UBS Asset Management. MORE ARTICLES ON

Bitcoin Security Consortium signals quantum threat pivot for custody. Jul 24, 2026 4 min Strategy and BlackRock have formed the Bitcoin Security Consortium to address quantum computing threats to Bitcoin's cryptographic foundations. The consortium's formation signals that the largest institutional Bitcoin holders now view post-quantum cryptography as an operational priority, not a theoretical concern. For institutional custody operators, this development accelerates the timeline for evaluating cryptographic resilience across all digital asset infrastructure. What happened. Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder with over 576,000 BTC on its balance sheet, and BlackRock, manager of the $60 billion iShares Bitcoin Trust, announced the formation of the Bitcoin Security Consortium. The group's stated mission is to prepare Bitcoin's network and its custodial infrastructure for the eventual arrival of cryptographically relevant quantum computers. The consortium will focus on identifying vulnerabilities in Bitcoin's current elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA) and coordinating industry-wide preparation for post-quantum cryptographic standards. The timing aligns with broader industry warnings. Coinbase's recent quantum analysis identified 3.1 million Bitcoin vulnerable through pay-to-public-key (P2PK) address reuse. These addresses expose public keys directly on the blockchain, making them theoretical targets for quantum attack vectors. The consortium's formation acknowledges that institutional holders cannot wait for academic consensus on quantum timelines before fortifying their custody architecture. Why it matters. Quantum computing threatens the cryptographic primitives underpinning all digital asset custody. Bitcoin and most major blockchains rely on ECDSA for transaction signing. Quantum computers with sufficient qubit counts could theoretically derive private keys from exposed public keys, rendering current signature schemes obsolete. While estimates for "Q-day" - the moment quantum computers achieve cryptographic relevance - range from 2030 to beyond 2040, institutional operators cannot afford reactive postures. The consortium's formation carries direct implications for custody architecture selection. Traditional single-key custody models present concentrated quantum risk: one compromised private key means total asset loss. Multi-signature (multisig) schemes distribute risk across multiple keys but remain vulnerable if each individual key uses the same cryptographic primitive. When ECDSA fails, all ECDSA-based keys fail simultaneously. Multi-party computation (MPC) and threshold signature schemes (TSS) offer structural advantages in quantum transition planning. MPC distributes cryptographic operations across multiple parties without ever assembling a complete private key. TSS extends this by requiring a threshold of participants - such as 3-of-3 or 2-of-3 - to collaboratively generate valid signatures. No single party holds enough information to sign independently, and critically, no complete private key exists at any point in the signing process. This architecture matters for quantum resilience because transitioning to post-quantum cryptographic algorithms becomes an operational update rather than a fundamental infrastructure replacement. MPC/TSS systems can adopt quantum-resistant signature schemes at the protocol layer while maintaining the distributed security model. Operators gain cryptographic agility without sacrificing sovereign control. Implications. Regulators and institutional compliance teams will increasingly evaluate custody providers on cryptographic upgrade paths. The European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) already mandates technical security standards for crypto-asset service providers (CASPs). The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) finalized its first post-quantum cryptographic standards in August 2024, establishing CRYSTALS-Kyber and CRYSTALS-Dilithium as approved algorithms. Custody infrastructure that cannot integrate these standards risks regulatory obsolescence. Non-custodial architecture gains strategic value in this context. Operators using self-custody models with threshold signature schemes maintain direct control over cryptographic transitions. There is no dependency on third-party custodians to implement quantum-resistant upgrades. When institutions retain one key share in a 3-of-3 TSS configuration - with the custody platform holding two shares - they preserve signing authority while eliminating single points of cryptographic failure. This model also addresses the zero counterparty risk requirement that quantum uncertainty amplifies. If quantum computers arrive earlier than predicted, institutions using non-custodial MPC/TSS can implement cryptographic upgrades on their own timeline. Platform lock-in becomes an unacceptable risk when cryptographic agility determines asset security. Trusted execution environments (TEE) add defense-in-depth to this architecture. TEEs isolate key share operations within hardware-secured enclaves, protecting against both classical attack vectors and potential quantum-adjacent threats during the transition period. SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications validate that these security controls meet institutional audit requirements. Crypto hack losses falling below $1 billion in H1 2026 correlate with growing TSS adoption, demonstrating that distributed signature architecture delivers measurable security outcomes even before quantum threats materialize. Institutions prioritizing TSS today position themselves for both current threat landscapes and future cryptographic requirements. What to watch next. The consortium's technical working groups will likely produce specific recommendations for Bitcoin network upgrades. Proposals for quantum-resistant address formats or signature algorithm soft forks could emerge within 12 to 18 months. Institutional custody providers will face pressure to demonstrate clear post-quantum transition roadmaps. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and securities regulators in the United States, European Union, and Asia-Pacific may incorporate cryptographic resilience standards into custody licensing requirements. MiCA's upcoming technical standards review in 2026 could include explicit provisions for cryptographic agility. Custody infrastructure supporting 10 or more blockchains faces additional complexity. Each chain uses different signature algorithms and consensus mechanisms. Ethereum's transition planning, Solana's Ed25519 signatures, and newer chains exploring post-quantum native designs all require distinct upgrade paths. MPC custody infrastructure positioned for regulated DeFi must accommodate this multi-chain cryptographic diversity while maintaining unified security policies. Bank compliance leads and exchange CTOs should begin auditing custody providers on quantum readiness criteria: cryptographic algorithm flexibility, key share distribution models, hardware security module specifications, and documented upgrade procedures. DAO treasurers managing significant on-chain holdings face similar imperatives, as governance token concentrations in quantum-vulnerable addresses present systemic risks. Institutions evaluating custody infrastructure should assess whether their current architecture supports cryptographic agility, threshold signature schemes, and non-custodial key share distribution. Vaultody's MPC/TSS platform, certified to SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 standards, provides 3-of-3 threshold custody across more than 10 blockchains with a MiCA-aligned, CASP-exempt non-custodial model. Operators retain sovereign control and zero counterparty risk while maintaining the flexibility to implement post-quantum cryptographic standards as they mature.