👉Issue #107 of QX Snapshots is out!

QualitaX
Mar 7
5 min read

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] BioNexus Gene Lab Corp Becomes First Nasdaq-Listed Company To Adopt Ethereum As Treasury Asset, Deribit Launches Innovative Block RFQ Interface, Libre Partners With Nomura's Laser Digital To Expand Institutional Fund Access On Injective - BioNexus Gene Lab Corp (NASDAQ: BGLC) has become the first Nasdaq-listed company to exclusively adopt Ethereum (ETH) as its treasury asset. The company, incorporated in Wyoming, released a comprehensive whitepaper detailing Ethereum's advantages as a financial infrastructure asset. CEO Sam Tan emphasized that Ethereum's high liquidity, utility, and stability made it an ideal choice for corporate treasury management. The decision aligns with Wyoming's progressive blockchain regulations, including the recent Wyoming Stable Token Act. Meanwhile, Deribit, the leading crypto options exchange, has introduced a Block Request-For-Quote (RFQ) interface to enhance large over-the-counter trading efficiency. The system enables direct negotiation of block trades without affecting public order books and supports complex trading structures with up to 20 legs in a single trade. Using a multi-maker model, it allows multiple liquidity providers to offer partial quotes and permits third-party platform integration. This launch coincides with Sygnum Bank's expansion of custody services to include Deribit, amid reports of potential acquisition talks with Kraken. Also, Libre has integrated its platform with Injective, enabling institutional and accredited investors to access regulated on-chain investment funds. This collaboration makes available tokenized products from major asset managers like Nomura's Laser Digital, BlackRock, and Hamilton Lane. Key offerings include Laser Digital's market-neutral Laser Carry Fund, BlackRock's tokenized money market fund, and Hamilton Lane's private credit opportunities. The integration represents significant progress in connecting traditional finance with DeFi.

[AI] Mistral AI Launches Mistral OCR, Anthropic Unveils Upgraded Console With Enhanced Collaboration, Alibaba Cloud Unveils QwQ-32B, Google Expands Access To Its Data Science Agent In Google Colab - Mistral AI has introduced Mistral OCR, a groundbreaking Optical Character Recognition API that sets new standards in document understanding. The system processes images and PDFs with unprecedented accuracy, comprehending text, tables, equations, and media elements across multiple languages. Benchmarks show it outperforming competitors like Google Document AI and Azure OCR, with 94.89% overall accuracy. The service is priced at 1000 pages per dollar, with doubled efficiency through batch processing, and offers selective self-hosting options for sensitive data. Meanwhile, Anthropic has unveiled an upgraded Console featuring enhanced collaboration tools for AI development teams. The platform now enables developers to share prompts with teammates and supports the latest Claude 3.7 Sonnet model with extended thinking capabilities. The Console offers comprehensive tools for writing, evaluating, and optimizing prompts, including automatic prompt generation and test case evaluation. Teams can maintain a centralized prompt library, ensuring consistent quality across Claude-powered applications. Also, Alibaba Cloud has launched QwQ-32B, a new 32-billion-parameter AI model that achieves performance comparable to larger models. Built on Qwen2.5-32B, it excels in mathematical reasoning, coding, and instruction-following capabilities. The model leverages reinforcement learning and includes agent-related features for critical thinking and tool utilization. QwQ-32B is now available as an open-source model on Hugging Face and Model Scope, making it accessible for deployment on consumer-grade hardware. And, Google has expanded access to its Data Science Agent in Google Colab, powered by Gemini, to users aged 18 and above in select countries. This AI-powered tool automatically generates complete notebooks from natural language descriptions, handling tasks like importing libraries and data processing. The agent has demonstrated impressive performance, ranking 4th in the DABStep benchmark and surpassing other AI models like GPT-4 and Claude. This development aims to streamline data analysis workflows and accelerate research processes through automated notebook generation.

[Quantum technology] Chinese Researchers Unveil Quantum Processor Zuchongzhi 3.0, Outperforming Google's Sycamore By One Million Times, Europe Launches PQC4eMRTD, Madrid Invests €16 Million In Quantum Communications Research Chinese researchers have officially published findings that their quantum processor, Zuchongzhi 3.0, achieves quantum computational advantage surpassing Google's Sycamore by a factor of one million. The 105-qubit superconducting processor completed a complex task in seconds that would take classical supercomputers billions of years. Using 83 qubits in a 32-cycle random circuit sampling experiment, the processor demonstrated significant improvements in qubit stability and gate fidelity. While this marks a major advancement in quantum computing capabilities, researchers acknowledge that random circuit sampling may not directly translate to solving real-world problems. Meanwhile, a major European initiative, PQC4eMRTD, launched in February 2025 to develop quantum-resistant security standards for electronic travel documents. The two-year project, funded by the EU's Digital Europe Programme, brings together industry leaders including Thales, Infineon Technologies, and CryptoNext Security. With quantum computing expected to grow tenfold by 2026, the initiative aims to protect electronic passports from future quantum threats. The project will promote standardization of quantum-resistant protocols and provide a blueprint for Europe's transition to post-quantum cryptography. Also, Madrid is making a significant stride in quantum communications with a €16 million investment to expand MadQCI, Europe's largest quantum communications network. The initiative, led by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid through the MadQuantum-CM consortium, focuses on developing quantum communication protocols and integrating quantum key distribution with conventional networks. The project involves collaboration between academic institutions and industry partners, with testing conducted at 5TONIC laboratory using Telefónica's fiber infrastructure. This investment is part of a larger €73 million commitment to quantum research in Madrid.

[General technology] Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Successfully Launches, UK NCSC's Quiet Removal Of Encryption Recommendations, Massive Eleven11bot Botnet Emerges As Significant Cybersecurity Threat. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has photographed Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander after its successful March 2 touchdown in Mare Crisium ("Sea of Crises"). The images, taken from 109 miles east of the landing site, show the Texas-built robotic craft near a volcanic cone called Mons Latreille in the northeastern region of the moon's near side. The Blue Ghost mission, part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, delivered 10 scientific instruments to support the Artemis program. This marks a successful private-sector contribution to NASA's lunar exploration efforts. Meanwhile, a massive new botnet called Eleven11bot, comprising approximately 30,000 infected video recorders and webcams, has emerged as a significant cybersecurity threat. First detected in February by Nokia's Deepfield team, the network delivered the largest-ever denial-of-service attack, peaking at 6.5 terabits per second. The botnet, likely a Mirai variant, primarily targets communication service providers and gaming infrastructure, with the highest concentration of infected devices in the US (24.4%), followed by Taiwan (17.7%). The malware specifically exploits TVT-NVMS 9000 digital video recorders running on HiSilicon chips. Also, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has quietly removed encryption recommendations from its government websites, including advice for legal professionals to use Apple's Advanced Data Protection. This change follows the UK government's recent demand for backdoor access to encrypted iCloud data. In response, Apple has withdrawn its Advanced Data Protection feature in the UK, making it unavailable to new users while existing users will need to disable it. Apple is now challenging the UK's data access order in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.