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. We hope it brings you value!

[Blockchain] Circle & SBI Holdings Partner to Bring USDC to Japan, DigiFT Launches AI Index Fund, iBTC Integrates with Canton Network, CME Group and Google Cloud Pilot Tokenization, and Axis Bank and J.P. Morgan Enable 24/7 Dollar Payments with Kinexys. Custodia Bank and Vantage have partnered to issue a deposit token on the Ethereum blockchain, similar to a stablecoin, but backed by bank deposits. The test transactions demonstrated low costs, speed, and programmability, while meeting regulatory requirements. Custodia aims to overcome regulatory obstacles and offer full reserve deposits, which could attract stablecoin issuers seeking secure and reliable redemption options.  Circle is expanding its presence in Japan through its local entity, Circle Japan KK, and partnerships with SBI Holdings and exchanges like Binance Japan and bitFlyer. This will enable the adoption of USDC, a stablecoin backed 1:1 by US dollars, in Japan. Meanwhile, DigiFT is launching a tokenized fund, the DigiFT Hash Global AI Index Fund, offering exposure to top 10 AI-related US stocks, including Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft. The fund will be available on-chain, allowing investors to subscribe using stablecoins, eliminating traditional banking hurdles. Also, RealEstate.Exchange (REX) has launched on Polygon, offering a platform for tokenized real estate trading. REX aims to provide a compliant venue for fractional property investments, addressing liquidity constraints. The platform will initially feature luxury properties in Miami. REX is licensed in the US and seeking registrations in the EU, South Africa, and UAE. And, iBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin solution, will deploy on the Canton Network, enabling institutional counterparties to use Bitcoin for margin flows in OTC derivatives trading. This integration allows market makers to deposit BTC, wrap it into iBTC, and use it for initial and variation margin solutions, unlocking new opportunities and simplifying Bitcoin integration into trading. The collaboration enhances confidentiality, security, and liquidity for institutional traders. In other news, CME Group and Google Cloud are partnering to pilot tokenization technology using Google Cloud's Universal Ledger. The partnership aims to deliver significant efficiencies for collateral, margin, settlement, and fee payments, with plans to launch new services in 2026. And, Axis Bank and J.P. Morgan have partnered to offer 24/7 US dollar payment capabilities to commercial clients in India, facilitated by Kinexys. This allows Indian companies to make or receive dollar payments at any time, streamlining cross-border payments and unlocking liquidity. The service enables payments to be made on weekends and holidays, reducing liquidity costs and preserving payment amounts until they reach the final beneficiary.

[AI] OpenAI Unveils 4o Image Generation, Qwen Launches QVQ-Max, DeepSeek Releases DeepSeek-V3-0324, Google Gemini 2.5, While Anthropic Publishes Biology Of Large Language Models . This week, OpenAI introduced "4o Image Generation", a new multimodal image-generation capability integrated into its GPT-4o AI language model, allowing for precise and accurate image generation with better text rendering and context awareness, enabling users to create useful and valuable images that convey precise meaning. Meanwhile, Qwen (from Alibaba) has released QVQ-Max, a visual reasoning model that combines visual perception with logical reasoning, enabling it to tackle complex tasks such as mathematical problems, multi-image recognition, and video understanding. The model excels in detailed observation, deep reasoning, and flexible application, and has potential applications in various fields, including education, work, and daily life. Also, DeepSeek has released DeepSeek-V3-0324, an updated model that demonstrates notable improvements over its predecessor in reasoning capabilities, front-end web development, and Chinese writing proficiency. The model achieves state-of-the-art performance on several benchmarks, including MMLU-Pro, GPQA, and AIME, and offers enhanced features such as multi-turn interactive rewriting and optimized translation quality. And, Google has released Gemini 2.5, its most intelligent AI model, which can reason through complex problems and provide enhanced performance and accuracy. Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental leads benchmarks in reasoning, coding, and science, and is available in Google AI Studio and the Gemini app, with plans to expand to Vertex AI soon. In other news, Anthropic released a new research paper “On the Biology of a Large Language Model” exploring the internal mechanisms of large language models, using a methodology called circuit tracing to understand how models like Claude 3.5 Haiku process information. The study reveals complex strategies, including multi-step reasoning, planning, and abstraction, and provides insights into the model's decision-making processes, highlighting the need for further research into AI interpretability. 

[Quantum Technology] Nokia, Honeywell, and Numana Focus on Quantum-Safe Networks, Oxford Researchers Smash Quantum Computing Records, EuroHPC JU Selects Pasqal for 140-Qubit Quantum Simulator, and Fujitsu and QuTech Achieve Breakthroughs with Diamond Spin Qubits. Nokia, Honeywell Aerospace Technologies, and Numana have partnered to advance quantum-safe networks, leveraging Numana's Kirq Quantum Communication Testbed and Nokia's post-quantum networking infrastructure, with Honeywell introducing satellite-based quantum encryption keys to enhance data integrity, aiming to secure next-generation communications infrastructure in Montreal, Canada, and worldwide. Meanwhile, Oxford researchers demonstrated a 25-nanosecond controlled-Z gate with 99.8% fidelity, combining high speed and accuracy in a simplified superconducting circuit design, eliminating the need for tunable couplers and reducing circuit complexity, advancing fault-tolerant quantum computing by improving raw gate performance. Also, the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) has selected Pasqal to build a 140-qubit neutral atom quantum simulator in Italy, with a planned upgrade to hybrid analogue/digital capabilities in 2027, supporting research in quantum physics, optimization, and materials science, as part of a broader initiative to establish a European quantum computing network. And, Norma and Gyeongsang National University have launched South Korea's first quantum initiative in aerospace, aiming to develop quantum algorithms for nonlinear high-speed aerodynamics simulations, targeting exponential improvements in computational fluid dynamics for hypersonic vehicles and space systems, with a 5-8 year project timeline. Researchers from Fujitsu and QuTech have made progress in quantum computing using diamond spin qubits, which offer high performance and stability. They developed techniques to reduce environmental noise and improve gate operations, achieving gate fidelities above 99.9%. Diamond spin qubits can operate at higher temperatures than superconducting qubits and can transmit quantum states using photons, making them promising for scalable quantum computers. Fujitsu and QuTech will continue to develop this technology, focusing on larger systems and high-precision optical interconnects, with the goal of creating a practical quantum computer.

[General technology] INTERPOL Red Card, as Morphing Meerkat New Pishing Kit, CoffeeLoader, and Atlantis AIO Threats Emerge INTERPOL has arrested 306 suspects and seized 1,842 devices in a cross-border cybercrime operation, codenamed Red Card, that targeted mobile banking, investment, and messaging app scams in seven countries. The operation involved scams that affected over 5,000 victims. Nigerian police arrested 130 people, while South African authorities seized over 1,000 SIM cards used for SMS phishing attacks. Other countries, including Rwanda and Zambia, also made significant arrests and seizures. Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new phishing kit, "Morphing Meerkat", which mimics 114 brands using victims' DNS email records to serve fake login pages. The kit uses DNS MX records to identify the victim's email provider and dynamically serves fake login pages, making the phishing experience feel natural and increasing the chances of success. Meanwhile, a new malware called CoffeeLoader, which uses a GPU-based packer called Armoury to evade detection by endpoint security products and antivirus software has been discovered. The malware downloads and executes secondary payloads, using techniques such as call stack spoofing and sleep obfuscation to bypass security solutions, and has similarities with another known malware loader called SmokeLoader. Also, hackers are using the Atlantis AIO Multi-Checker tool to automate credential stuffing attacks on over 140 platforms, including email providers, e-commerce sites, food delivery and streaming services, VPNs and financial institutions. The tool allows attackers to test millions of stolen credentials at scale, facilitating fraud, data theft, and account takeovers. Atlantis AIO offers pre-configured modules for targeting various platforms and can also conduct brute-force attacks and automate account recovery processes. To mitigate these risks, it's recommended to implement strict password rules and phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication mechanisms.

• Fidelity plans to launch stablecoin in digital assets pushFidelity plans to launch stablecoin in digital assets push - Financial Times

• World Liberty Financial Plans to Launch USD1, the Institutional-Ready Stablecoin - BusinessWire

• STABLE Act Full Text - US House of Representatives

• Tony McLaughlin's Ubyx: enabling stablecoin ubiquity (video) - OMFIF

• BlackRock’s BUIDL expands to Solana as tokenized money market fund nears $2B - CoinTelegraph

• Particula Successfully Completes Proof-of-Concept with Moody’s Ratings to Enhance Digital Asset Risk Capabilities - Particula

• ADGM and Chainlink Forge Alliance to Shape Global Blockchain Standards and Best Practices - ADGM

• CPIC Estable MMF Launches on HashKey Chain with $100M First-Day Subscriptions - HashKey Group/PR Newswire

• PwC Italy and SKChain Advisors prep blockchain-based digital identity product - Finextra

• A Sale of 23andMe’s Data Would Be Bad for Privacy. Here’s What Customers Can Do - Electronic Frontier Foundation