{"id":79253,"date":"2026-10-08T21:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T21:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/luxembourg-vc-nextblocks-3m-bet-targets-a-missing-piece-of-crypto-finance-bitcoin-news\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T21:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T21:27:12","slug":"luxembourg-vc-nextblocks-3m-bet-targets-a-missing-piece-of-crypto-finance-bitcoin-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/luxembourg-vc-nextblocks-3m-bet-targets-a-missing-piece-of-crypto-finance-bitcoin-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Luxembourg VC Nextblock&#8217;s $3M Bet Targets a Missing Piece of Crypto Finance \u2013 Bitcoin News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News )<\/b><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"@container mb-[25px] rounded-sm overflow-clip py-0.5 pr-0.5 pl-2.5 bg-success-100\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-col gap-m overflow-clip rounded-[6px] !bg-success-10 p-3 @[420px]:p-m\">\n<h2 class=\"m-0 flex items-center gap-s text-[19px] !text-[#1c1c1c] md:text-[20px]\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16\" height=\"10\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 10\" fill=\"none\" class=\"shrink-0 text-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><path d=\"M1 1.5h14\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\"\/><path d=\"M1 8.5h10\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\"\/><\/svg><span>Key Takeaways<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul class=\"m-0 flex list-none flex-col gap-m pl-0\">\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Nextblock invested $3 million to fully fund the seed round for blockchain privacy startup Soda Labs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Nextblock\u2019s Pieter van Poecke noted programmable privacy enables regulated capital to move onchain.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Soda Labs will use the capital over 12 to 18 months to expand Soda Bubble and launch institutional pilots.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!-- --> <\/p>\n<h2>Programmable Privacy Over Privacy Coins<\/h2>\n<p>Luxembourg-based venture capital firm Nextblock has invested $3 million to fully fund the seed round for Soda Labs, a cryptographic infrastructure startup building programmable privacy tools for public blockchains. The single-investor round will give Soda Labs a 12- to 18-month runway to expand commercial execution, scale its validator network, and advance go-to-market integrations with financial institutions, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitcoin.com\/get-started\/what-are-real-world-assets-rwa\/?_gl=1*pycpb2*_gcl_au*OTk5NTQzMjAuMTc4OTMyOTIwMQ..*_ga*MTU3OTQwMTMwLjE3NzM3NjQ2MDc.*_ga_ERLPF60ZDD*czE3OTE0NTcyMTgkbzg3NCRnMSR0MTc5MTQ1NzI0OSRqMjkkbDAkaDA.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tokenization platforms<\/a>, and payment companies.<\/p>\n<p>The investment comes as privacy-focused digital assets, most notably zcash (ZEC), have strongly <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/market-updates\/wall-street-opens-door-privacy-coin-boom-5-months\/\">outperformed the market<\/a> this year. However, Nextblock emphasizes that its investment strategy centers on utility rather than speculative market momentum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fundamental problem is very simple: public blockchains are radically transparent, while real financial activity is not,\u201d explained Pieter van Poecke, founder and general partner of Nextblock. \u201cA bank, asset manager, or company cannot realistically expose every position, trade, balance, treasury movement or client transaction to the entire internet. As stablecoins, tokenized assets and other forms of financial activity increasingly move onchain, privacy stops being a niche feature and starts becoming a prerequisite.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Van Poecke added that the long-term opportunity lies in bridging confidential execution with regulatory compliance. He argues that privacy and regulatory compliance can coexist through \u201cprogrammable privacy,\u201d which protects sensitive financial data while enforcing necessary rules and permissions. Consequently, Nextblock\u2019s investment in Soda Labs is a strategic play on essential institutional infrastructure rather than a speculative bet on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitcoin.com\/get-started\/wallet-security\/privacy-protection\/what-are-privacy-coins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">privacy coins<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Addressing AI Threats and Quantum Risks<\/h2>\n<p>Beyond market dynamics, Van Poecke highlighted the evolving security landscape facing blockchain architecture, particularly the dual pressures of artificial intelligence (AI) and <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/technology\/europol-warns-quantum-threat-could-put-crypto-fortunes-risk\/\">quantum computing<\/a>. While AI presents an immediate operational challenge by altering the economics of security research and accelerating vulnerability discovery, quantum computing represents an existential threat to foundational public-key cryptography.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAI is already changing the economics of security research. It can help researchers and attackers find implementation vulnerabilities much faster, which means protocols need to become substantially more rigorous about auditing and continuous testing,\u201d Van Poecke told Bitcoin.com News.<\/p>\n<p>However, he cautioned against ignoring long-term cryptographic risks in favor of immediate concerns:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cQuantum is a different kind of risk. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer would not simply make existing attacks faster; it could fundamentally break widely used public-key cryptography. And the difficult part is that nobody knows exactly when that threshold will be crossed. So I think the industry has to deal with both time horizons simultaneously.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Van Poecke argued that the blockchain industry must mitigate immediate AI-driven attacks today while proactively building post-quantum resistance. Delaying preparation leaves protocols vulnerable to sudden market repricing and insufficient time to adapt once a major quantum breakthrough occurs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is why I don\u2019t think complacency around post-quantum cryptography is justified simply because AI feels like the more visible threat today,\u201d Van Poecke added.<\/p>\n<p>Founded two and a half years ago, Soda Labs addresses institutional security and confidentiality demands by enabling regulated capital to transact on public chains without exposing sensitive transactional data.<\/p>\n<h2>Practical Infrastructure for Institutional Workloads<\/h2>\n<p>Rather than relying on specialized hardware, Soda Labs\u2019 privacy engine uses standard, battle-tested cryptography\u2014combining garbled circuits with multiparty computation on standard cloud CPUs. This architecture allows applications to run private, developer-defined computations while maintaining seamless connectivity with existing public blockchain infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>The new capital will support the expansion of Soda Bubble, a chain-agnostic coprocessor for programmable privacy. Bubble processes developer-defined privacy workloads from various blockchains without revealing private underlying data publicly or to Soda Labs itself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPublic blockchains already have the liquidity, users, and financial applications. What they lack is a way for regulated money to move without showing everyone everything,\u201d said Avishay Yanai, co-founder and CEO of Soda Labs. \u201cBubble gives banks, payment companies, and tokenization platforms privacy with controlled disclosure, on the chains they already use. This round lets us take it from pilots to production.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beyond expanding its validator network, the seed funding will support team growth and advance undisclosed pilots with banks, payment providers, and tokenization platforms, aiming to convert these trials into full production deployments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat attracted us to Soda was not only the underlying cryptography, but the practicality of the technology for the financial workloads we believe will matter most onchain,\u201d Van Poecke noted. \u201cSoda already had a working product and paying customers. We believe its differentiated technical IP, deeply technical founding team, and strong commercial instincts give the company a compelling foundation for its next phase.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"not-prose my-3 lg:my-4\">\n<div class=\"overflow-hidden rounded-lg !bg-[#E8EDFA] p-[9px] hidden md:flex md:flex-row md:gap-3 lg:hidden\"><a aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" class=\"relative size-[150px] min-w-[150px] shrink-0 overflow-hidden rounded-[15px]\" href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/bitcoin-is-not-a-privacy-coin-says-crypto-evangelist-andreas-antonopoulos\/\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"absolute left-2 top-2\"><img alt=\"Bitcoin.com News\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"size-7\" style=\"color:transparent\" srcset=\"\/_next\/image\/?url=%2Fimages%2Fuploads%2Fbitcoin_news_newlogo.svg&amp;w=32&amp;q=75 1x, \/_next\/image\/?url=%2Fimages%2Fuploads%2Fbitcoin_news_newlogo.svg&amp;w=64&amp;q=75 2x\" src=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/_next\/image\/?url=%2Fimages%2Fuploads%2Fbitcoin_news_newlogo.svg&amp;w=64&amp;q=75\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"overflow-hidden rounded-lg !bg-[#E8EDFA] p-[9px] hidden lg:flex lg:flex-row lg:gap-4\"><a aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" class=\"relative size-[150px] min-w-[150px] shrink-0 overflow-hidden rounded-[15px]\" href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/bitcoin-is-not-a-privacy-coin-says-crypto-evangelist-andreas-antonopoulos\/\"><img alt=\"\u2018Bitcoin Is Not a Privacy Coin\u2019 Says Crypto Evangelist Andreas Antonopoulos\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"fill\" class=\"object-cover\" style=\"position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent\" sizes=\"150px\" srcset=\"\/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.news.bitcoin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F07%2FuGOyqIAc-bitcoin-is-not-a-privacy-coin-says-crypto-evangelist-andreas-antonopoulos-150x150.jpg&amp;w=32&amp;q=75 32w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.news.bitcoin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F07%2FuGOyqIAc-bitcoin-is-not-a-privacy-coin-says-crypto-evangelist-andreas-antonopoulos-150x150.jpg&amp;w=48&amp;q=75 48w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.news.bitcoin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F07%2FuGOyqIAc-bitcoin-is-not-a-privacy-coin-says-crypto-evangelist-andreas-antonopoulos-150x150.jpg&amp;w=64&amp;q=75 64w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.news.bitcoin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F07%2FuGOyqIAc-bitcoin-is-not-a-privacy-coin-says-crypto-evangelist-andreas-antonopoulos-150x150.jpg&amp;w=128&amp;q=75 128w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.news.bitcoin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F07%2FuGOyqIAc-bitcoin-is-not-a-privacy-coin-says-crypto-evangelist-andreas-antonopoulos-150x150.jpg&amp;w=256&amp;q=75 256w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.news.bitcoin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F07%2FuGOyqIAc-bitcoin-is-not-a-privacy-coin-says-crypto-evangelist-andreas-antonopoulos-150x150.jpg&amp;w=384&amp;q=75 384w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.news.bitcoin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F07%2FuGOyqIAc-bitcoin-is-not-a-privacy-coin-says-crypto-evangelist-andreas-antonopoulos-150x150.jpg&amp;w=640&amp;q=75 640w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.news.bitcoin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F07%2FuGOyqIAc-bitcoin-is-not-a-privacy-coin-says-crypto-evangelist-andreas-antonopoulos-150x150.jpg&amp;w=828&amp;q=75 828w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.news.bitcoin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F07%2FuGOyqIAc-bitcoin-is-not-a-privacy-coin-says-crypto-evangelist-andreas-antonopoulos-150x150.jpg&amp;w=1080&amp;q=75 1080w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.news.bitcoin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F07%2FuGOyqIAc-bitcoin-is-not-a-privacy-coin-says-crypto-evangelist-andreas-antonopoulos-150x150.jpg&amp;w=1200&amp;q=75 1200w, \/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.news.bitcoin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F07%2FuGOyqIAc-bitcoin-is-not-a-privacy-coin-says-crypto-evangelist-andreas-antonopoulos-150x150.jpg&amp;w=1920&amp;q=75 1920w\" src=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/_next\/image\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.news.bitcoin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F07%2FuGOyqIAc-bitcoin-is-not-a-privacy-coin-says-crypto-evangelist-andreas-antonopoulos-150x150.jpg&amp;w=1920&amp;q=75\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"absolute left-2 top-2\"><img alt=\"Bitcoin.com News\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"size-7\" style=\"color:transparent\" srcset=\"\/_next\/image\/?url=%2Fimages%2Fuploads%2Fbitcoin_news_newlogo.svg&amp;w=32&amp;q=75 1x, \/_next\/image\/?url=%2Fimages%2Fuploads%2Fbitcoin_news_newlogo.svg&amp;w=64&amp;q=75 2x\" src=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/_next\/image\/?url=%2Fimages%2Fuploads%2Fbitcoin_news_newlogo.svg&amp;w=64&amp;q=75\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"flex min-w-0 flex-1 flex-col justify-center gap-2\">\n<p class=\"m-0 line-clamp-2 text-base leading-[1.3] !text-[#67656E]\">Andreas Antonopoulos discussed how he desired to see Bitcoin have more \u201cprivacy features\u201d in a recent live stream Q&amp;A session\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/security\/luxembourg-vc-nextblocks-3m-bet-targets-missing-piece-crypto-finance\/\">Source link <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News ) Key Takeaways Nextblock invested $3 million to fully fund the seed round for blockchain privacy startup Soda Labs. Nextblock\u2019s Pieter van Poecke noted programmable privacy enables regulated capital to move onchain. Soda Labs will use the capital over 12 to 18 months to expand Soda Bubble and launch [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":79254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}