Today in crypto, Core Scientific reported that second-quarter revenue more than doubled as AI colocation became its largest business, Lido unveiled an Ethereum upgrade that could cut the network’s validator count by roughly one-third and Hong Kong’s central bank outlined a plan to prepare the city’s banking sector for quantum-computing risks by 2030.Core Scientific revenue jumps as AI colocation becomes largest businessCore Scientific more than doubled its second-quarter revenue as AI and high-performance computing (HPC) colocation became its largest business, even as a non-cash accounting charge pushed the company to a $1.15 billion net loss.The digital infrastructure company reported Q2 revenue of $164.2 million, up from $78.6 million a year earlier. Colocation revenue surged to $136.7 million, compared with US$10.6 million in the prior-year period, while gross profit increased to $70 million from US$5 million.Core Scientific’s $1.15 billion net loss was largely due to a non-cash accounting charge tied to the rising value of outstanding warrants as its share price climbed.The company also announced a partnership with chipmaker AMD to support AI infrastructure. The agreement is initially backed by 15-year contracts covering 530 megawatts across multiple US sites beginning in 2027 and could eventually expand to 2.5 gigawatts of leasable data center capacity. Core Scientific said the broader partnership has the potential to generate more than $14 billion in contracted base revenue.Lido upgrade aims to slash Ethereum’s validator count by one-thirdLido, a liquid staking protocol that lets users earn Ethereum staking rewards through its stETH token, has launched an upgrade to its staking infrastructure that aims to improve validator efficiency and decentralization.The upgrade introduces Curated Module v2, which adds support for Ethereum’s 0x02 withdrawal credentials. The change allows validators to increase their effective balance from 32 ETH to as many as 2,048 ETH, according to a Lido update on Monday.The protocol said the migration could reduce Ethereum’s validator count to about 628,000 from 880,000, a decrease of about one-third. The migration has not started yet, and the figures are based on Lido’s projections.The change is expected to trim Ethereum’s consensus layer by reducing the number of validators and validator messages required to maintain the network, according to Lido. It is not designed to change execution-layer activity, which determines transaction fees and gas costs.Hong Kong prepares banks for quantum threats amid tokenization pushThe HKMA has launched a framework to assess banks’ preparedness for quantum-computing threats as the city expands its use of tokenized deposits, digital assets and blockchain settlement. On Monday, the HKMA introduced a white paper on quantum preparedness and the sector’s first Quantum Preparedness Index (QPI). The index gave the sector an overall readiness score of 2.3 out of 10, while the white paper found that around half of surveyed institutions had no formal post-quantum planning in place. The HKMA said it aims to achieve full sector readiness, represented by a QPI score of 10, by 2030.The development comes as Hong Kong moves more traditional financial activity onto distributed ledgers. Government figures show that Hong Kong has issued three batches of tokenized green bonds totaling about HK$16.8 billion (about $2.1 billion) since 2023, while the HKMA is advancing tokenized deposits and digital-asset settlement through Project Ensemble. The HKMA white paper said distributed ledger applications and payment networks depend on cryptography for core functions and could face severe disruption if those protections were compromised. It also said one surveyed institution completed a proof of concept applying post-quantum cryptography to distributed-ledger connectivity and cited HSBC’s 2024 use of quantum-safe technology to move tokenized gold across distributed ledgers.