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Points of Focus
- Bison Bank and DK Bank will test quantum-resistant wallets and digital asset transfers using a specialized NEAR testnet.
- Regulators from Abu Dhabi, Bhutan and Malta are observing the first phase rather than approving or deploying the technology themselves.
- The pilot uses ML-DSA-65, part of the post-quantum signature standard finalized by NIST in 2024, combined with multi-party computation.
Banks and financial regulators across three regions have joined a new experiment testing whether digital asset transactions can be protected against future quantum-computing attacks.
The Responsible Fintech Institute (RFI) and digital asset custody infrastructure provider Safeheron announced the pilot on Aug. 24. Participating banks include Bison Bank and DK Bank, while Abu Dhabi Global Market, Bhutan’s Gelephu Financial Services Office and the Malta Financial Services Authority are involved on the regulatory side.
The regulators are not yet testing transactions themselves. RFI said they will initially participate as observers, before contributing to a governance workstream in the next stage.
How the NEAR post-quantum pilot works
The experiment focuses on one of blockchain’s most important security components: the digital signature used to authorize a transaction.
Most existing financial and blockchain systems rely on public-key cryptography that could become vulnerable if sufficiently powerful quantum computers are developed.
🚨𝗘𝗨𝗥𝗢𝗣𝗘, 𝗠𝗜𝗗𝗗𝗟𝗘 𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗧 & 𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗔 𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗤𝗨𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗠-𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗧 𝗖𝗥𝗬𝗣𝗧𝗢 𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗧𝗦!
Banks and regulators in Europe, the Middle East and Asia are running trials of quantum‑proof wallets on a NEAR testnet.
The pilots focus on on‑chain… pic.twitter.com/gCplyqyFaM
— Rahul K (@iamrahulinc) August 24, 2026
The pilot combines multi-party computation, or MPC, with ML-DSA-65, a post-quantum digital signature algorithm covered by NIST’s FIPS 204 standard. Institutions will test wallet creation and onchain transfers in a shared application environment running on a specialized NEAR testnet.
NIST finalized FIPS 204 in August 2024 and says ML-DSA is believed to remain secure even against an adversary possessing a large-scale quantum computer.
The proposed setup uses a non-custodial 2-of-2 MPC structure. Two parties hold separate pieces needed to authorize a transaction, meaning neither has to possess the complete signing secret alone.
Importantly, the test does not mean the NEAR mainnet has suddenly become quantum-proof. The pilot is evaluating a particular post-quantum signing architecture using a NEAR test environment before any wider production deployment.
Why banks are testing this now
No quantum computer currently exists that can simply break major blockchain wallets or banking systems at will.
The concern is the migration timeline.
The Bank for International Settlements warned in 2025 that replacing existing cryptography cannot be treated as a simple software update. Banks need to catalogue cryptographic dependencies, test performance and interoperability, and plan a phased transition before a capable quantum machine arrives.
a year ago, if you asked what to actually do with $NEAR besides stake it, the honest answer was thin. this week it isn't.
swap any chain to any chain without choosing a route using @near_intents. you don't pick a bridge, you sign an intent and it either fills or refunds. $25.8b… pic.twitter.com/i7VZ1F9bg8
— haenko(⋈,🇺🇦) (@haenko21) August 22, 2026
The financial sector has already moved beyond theoretical discussion. In 2025, the BIS, Swift, the Bank of France, Deutsche Bundesbank, Bank of Italy and others tested post-quantum signatures in an operational payment-system environment, finding that migration was feasible but came with performance and integration trade-offs.
The NEAR experiment takes that work into digital assets and institutional wallets.
RFI plans to publish a whitepaper containing the results, while Safeheron says the underlying post-quantum protocol will eventually be open-sourced for independent review.
For now, it remains a proof of concept. The useful result will not be whether a test transaction can be signed, but whether banks can integrate quantum-resistant keys into real custody operations without creating new security, governance or performance problems.
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