A new Coinbase–Ipsos survey shows younger US investors are trading more often, taking more risk and putting a far larger share of their portfolios into crypto. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says we already know the traditional financial system is broken. Younger people increasingly feel “locked out of the old wealth ladder,” and seek alternative assets like crypto. The numbers in Coinbase’s latest “State of Crypto” report back him up. The study, run by Ipsos in the fourth quarter, finds Gen Z and millennial investors are trading more often, taking more risk, and putting a much bigger slice of their portfolios into crypto and other non‑traditional assets than older generations. The survey of 4,350 US adults shows stock ownership is roughly the same across age groups (47% of younger investors versus 50% of older ones), but portfolio composition looks radically different. Read more
Solana has partnered with a security company to test quantum-resistant technology on a Solana testnet, claiming to offer a scalable end-to-end solution. The Solana Foundation announced a partnership with Project Eleven, a post-quantum crypto security company, to prepare Solana for the rise of quantum computing. According to a Tuesday announcement, Project Eleven led a full quantum computing threat assessment on Solana and prototyped a functioning Solana testnet using post-quantum digital signatures. The announcement claimed that its testnet implementation showed “end-to-end quantum-resistant transactions are practical and scalable.” This is a notable claim, given that post-quantum cryptography is expected to be more computationally expensive than traditional alternatives. Solana had not responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment by publication, including to questions about which post-quantum encryption standard the testnet in question uses. Read more
A new report warned that the Central African Republic’s crypto push favored elites and exposed the country to foreign criminal networks, rather than boosting financial inclusion. The Central African Republic’s push into crypto has deepened elite control and exposed the country to “foreign criminal organizations,” according to a recent report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). In the report titled “Behind the blockchain: Cryptocurrency and criminal capture in the Central African Republic,” researchers claimed that the CAR’s crypto ventures, from adopting Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender to launching Sango Coin and the CAR memecoin, were rolled out in a fragile nation with limited electricity, internet access and oversight. “An impoverished population, exposed to mass executions, torture and gang rape, with limited access to electricity, mobile phones and the internet, cannot engage in crypto investments in any meaningful way,” the report said, arguing that the programs were “...