Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner.
NIST had advanced it to the third round of its post-quantum competition in May, where it was the last lattice-based candidate standing.
rests on the assumption that the post-quantum schemes replacing today’s cryptography are themselves sound.
Claude Mythos just poked a hole in a leading candidate before it ever shipped.
Now we find out whether AI breaks cryptography faster than it can help rebuild it.
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Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt.
GM!
Today’s top news:
Crypto majors are green ahead of FOMC; BTC +1.6% at $64.4k
BlackRock joins Fidelity and Goldman in support of the Clarity Act
Anthropic says Mythos broke post-quantum cryptography
Zcash activated its Ironwood upgrade, 3.8% migrated out of Orchard so far
New Robinhood meme PIPEDOG soars to $40M+ on massive volume
🔓 An AI Model Just Broke Post-Quantum Cryptography
Anthropic said an unreleased version of its most powerful model, Claude Mythos Preview, found two previously unknown attacks on crypto algorithms, one of them against a scheme competing to become a U.S. federal standard.
The target, HAWK, is a digital signature system that proves a transaction came from you without exposing your private key, and it was specifically designed to survive quantum computers. NIST had advanced it to the third round of its post-quantum competition in May, where it was the last lattice-based candidate standing. Claude found a symmetry in HAWK’s math that no human had used, dropping the cost of stealing its smallest key from 2^64 operations to 2^38, roughly 67 million times less work.
Patching HAWK means roughly doubling its key sizes, and as Anthropic put it, that “eliminates many of the reasons” HAWK was attractive in the first place. Signature size is block space, and block space is fees, so any chain shopping for a quantum-resistant replacement is partly choosing on bytes per signature. Compact keys and fast signing were HAWK’s entire pitch, and the fix reduces that edge.
To be clear for crypto holders: HAWK has never been deployed anywhere, and Bitcoin still runs on ECDSA, the pre-quantum scheme these candidates are eventually meant to replace. So nothing in the field is broken. But that’s not the problem.
The problem is that post-quantum security remains the biggest overhang for crypto. The entire quantum defense effort spun up over the past weeks and months (the BlackRock-Coinbase-Strategy consortium, Vitalik’s post-quantum roadmap, NEAR and Zcash roadmaps, etc.) rests on the assumption that the post-quantum schemes replacing today’s cryptography are themselves sound. Claude Mythos just poked a hole in a leading candidate before it ever shipped.
The good news is the same tool defends as well as it attacks, which is exactly why the industry is racing to point it at its own code first. Now we find out whether AI breaks cryptography faster than it can help rebuild it.
🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets
Corporate Treasuries & ETFs
The Bitcoin ETFs saw $50M in net outflows on Tuesday; the ETH ETFs saw $9M in inflows
Meme Coin Tracker
Meme leaders were mixed; DOGE +1%, SHIB +3%, PEPE -2%, PENGU even, TRUMP -3%, BONK +1%
DOGE +1%, SHIB +3%, PEPE -2%, PENGU even, TRUMP -3%, BONK +1% Robinhood chain was led by PIPEDOG which saw $66M and ran to $45M mc; Cashcat (+22%), Stonkbroker (+70%) and AI (+16%) were other movers
was led by PIPEDOG which saw $66M and ran to $45M mc; Cashcat (+22%), Stonkbroker (+70%) and AI (+16%) were other movers The Cashcat team announced a new launchpad in letscash dot fun which uses fees to buy and burn cashcat tokens
announced a new launchpad in letscash dot fun which uses fees to buy and burn cashcat tokens Solana leaders included frank (+44x), Jimothy (+110%) and Untie (+150%); ANSEM +10% at $180M, EPIK +10% to $14M
💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker
Zcash activated its Ironwood upgrade after the counterfeiting scare, ensuring counterfeit coins can never enter circulation (ZEC -1.5% at $457)
activated its Ironwood upgrade after the counterfeiting scare, ensuring counterfeit coins can never enter circulation (ZEC -1.5% at $457) Perps DEX Lighter launched its Web V3 redesign, a refreshed trading interface with improvements to navigation, market views, and trading workflows
launched its Web V3 redesign, a refreshed trading interface with improvements to navigation, market views, and trading workflows TradeXYZ covered liquidation losses after an oracle issue with SKHYNIX led to large liquidations
covered liquidation losses after an oracle issue with SKHYNIX led to large liquidations JurassicFi tokenized "Deaton," a museum-grade Triceratops prorsus skull, calling it the first dinosaur fossil tokenized as a real-world asset on Solana
🚚 What is happening in NFTs?
NFT leaders were mostly flat; Punks -1% at 32.3 ETH, BAYC -1% at 8.35 ETH, Pudgy even at 4.06 ETH; Hypurr’s +1% at 189 HYPE
were mostly flat; Punks -1% at 32.3 ETH, BAYC -1% at 8.35 ETH, Pudgy even at 4.06 ETH; Hypurr’s +1% at 189 HYPE StonkBrokers (+50% to 3 ETH) and Satari (+26%) led top movers; TTT +20%
led top movers; TTT +20% FWA rebounded 23% to $21M overnight after dipping as low as $14M; the protocol added several new ERC20s including MOG and REKT
