-- Leadership and focus: Radical Semiconductor co-founders Sean Hackett and 
      Zach Belateche have joined BTQ full-time, with Anne Reinders continuing 
      as Head of Cryptography. Hackett will lead silicon product, and Belateche 
      will lead hardware security, accelerating commercialization across CASH 
      and QCIM. 
 
   -- CASH performance and relevance: CASH is a memory centric acceleration 
      architecture for post-quantum cryptography that delivers up to one 
      million digital signatures per second, up to five times faster AES 
      performance, ultra low power, and a compact footprint. It supports 
      current and next generation standards and targets payments, Internet of 
      Things, identity, and telecommunications. 
 
   -- QCIM integration and policy alignment: CASH is being integrated into QCIM 
      as a crypto agile engine available as silicon IP, co-processor, and 
      future chiplet configurations, enabling standards aligned migration to 
      NIST FIPS 203, 204, 205, and CNSA 2.0 without disrupting customer 
      workflows. The roadmap aligns with United States policy momentum on 
      post-quantum cryptography and the Post Quantum Financial Infrastructure 
      Framework, reinforcing applicability in regulated sectors including 
      energy, payments, telecommunications, and AI enabled systems. 

VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -BTQ Technologies Corp. ("BTQ" or the "Company") (Nasdaq: BTQ) (CBOE CA: BTQ) (FSE: NG3), a global quantum technology company focused on securing mission-critical networks today, announced that Sean Hackett and Zach Belateche, co-founders of Radical Semiconductor, have joined BTQ full-time. Anne Reinders remains full-time as Head of Cryptography.

This step follows BTQ's acquisition of Radical Semiconductor assets and advances the Company's plan to bring Radical's CASH, Cryptographically Agile Secure Hardware, to market for post-quantum cryptography across devices, networks, and critical infrastructure.

What is CASH

CASH is Radical's memory centric acceleration architecture designed to meet the computational demands of post-quantum cryptography.

   -- How it works: It uses processing in memory techniques to perform 
      computation where data resides, reducing data movement and improving 
      throughput per watt versus traditional CPU and GPU paths. 
 
   -- What it accelerates: Lattice based key establishment and signatures such 
      as ML KEM and ML DSA, hash based signatures such as SLH DSA, and 
      supporting primitives including SHA 3, Keccak, and KMAC. 
 
   -- Why it matters: It delivers higher performance and energy efficiency with 
      predictable latency and a compact footprint, enabling deployment from 
      embedded internet of things and automotive control units to hardware 
      security modules, payment terminals, data centers, and secure network 
      devices. 
 
   -- Standards alignment: It is built to support migration to NIST FIPS 203, 
      204, and 205 and complementary government guidance such as CNSA 2.0, 
      helping customers adopt quantum-safe cryptography without disrupting 
      existing workflows. 
 
   -- Integration paths: Available as silicon IP, a discrete co-processor, and 
      future chiplet based configurations to fit partner and customer roadmaps. 

CASH Overview and Performance

Recent performance tests of the CASH architecture reveal significant advantages over traditional solutions:

   -- Up to 5x faster encryption processing $(AES)$ compared to leading secure 
      hardware. 
 
   -- 1 million digital signatures per second, making it ideal for real-time 
      verification and authentication. 
 
   -- Ultra-low power consumption, less than a microjoule per cryptographic 
      operation. 
 
   -- Compact design, enabling integration into constrained environments like 
      smart cards, IoT devices, and hardware wallets. 

These characteristics make CASH well suited for payments, the internet of things, identity, and telecommunications, positioning BTQ at the forefront of securing global infrastructure against emerging quantum risks.

Transforming Legacy Security Infrastructure

CASH addresses a fundamental limitation in current hardware security: the inability to deliver high performance, physical security, and cryptographic agility simultaneously. Traditional security chips force difficult tradeoffs between speed, power efficiency, and reconfigurability, but CASH's processing-in-memory architecture changes the economics of secure hardware across critical markets:

AI & Content Security: CASH provides quantum-secure roots-of-trust for AI accelerators with minimal silicon overhead, allowing chipmakers to protect machine learning hardware without sacrificing valuable compute area. The architecture also enables on-device acceleration for digital content provenance standards--such as Adobe Content Credentials--that verify media authenticity at scale, protecting against AI-generated fake "verified" content.

Defense & Critical Infrastructure: The architecture delivers side-channel resistant cryptography for edge devices ranging from military drones to automotive control units, maintaining security even when devices fall into adversary hands. CASH's domain-oriented masking approach provides physical security without the performance penalties of traditional countermeasures.

Digital Assets & Payments: CASH forms the cryptographic core of BTQ's proposed Quantum Secure Stablecoin Network (QSSN), securing privileged functions like minting operations that protect trillions in digital value. The same architecture extends to next-generation hardware wallets, payment terminals, and identity systems, where key compromise would have catastrophic consequences

QCIM integration

CASH will be merged into BTQ's QCIM platform, Quantum Compute in Memory, as the cryptographic engine that delivers crypto agile acceleration. The integration roadmap includes delivery as synthesizable silicon IP, as a discrete co-processor, and in future chiplet based configurations, enabling partners to target leading foundry nodes while meeting requirements for throughput, latency, energy per operation, and area. By embedding CASH within QCIM, BTQ expects to offer secure elements and system components for payment, identity, and connected device markets that are faster, more power efficient, and ready for migration to quantum-safe standards without disrupting existing customer workflows.

Unlike fixed-function security processors with 4+ year design cycles, QCIM's general-purpose cryptographic acceleration architecture allows cryptography researchers and security engineers to deploy custom protocols or introduce upgrades to chips already in the field, critical as standards evolve and new quantum threats emerge. This flexibility ensures that devices deployed today can adapt to tomorrow's cryptographic requirements without hardware replacement.

By embedding CASH within QCIM, BTQ expects to offer secure elements and system components for payment, identity, and connected device markets that are faster, more power-efficient, and ready for migration to quantum-safe standards without disrupting existing customer workflows.

United States PQC Direction and Industry Frameworks

BTQ's QCIM and CASH roadmap aligns with the current direction of United States policy on post-quantum cryptography. The White House and Congress have signaled further actions to accelerate migration to quantum-safe standards across federal systems and critical infrastructure, building on existing OMB and national security guidance. In parallel, the Post Quantum Financial Infrastructure Framework, a public submission to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Crypto Assets Task Force, outlines an orderly path for financial institutions to adopt quantum-resistant cryptography with an emphasis on NIST standards and investor protection. Taken together, these policy and industry developments reinforce the practicality of QCIM and CASH as crypto agile engines for regulated environments in sectors such as energy, payments, telecommunications, and AI enabled systems."

Roles and background

Sean Hackett, Head of Silicon Product. Co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Radical Semiconductor with experience in productizing advanced semiconductor research into commercial cryptographic solutions for defense, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and financial technology. Bachelor of Science in Physics, Stanford University.

Zach Belateche, Head of Hardware Security. Co-founder of Radical Semiconductor and specialist in high efficiency accelerator architectures and processing in memory techniques for cryptography. Master of Science and Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Stanford University.

Anne Reinders, Head of Cryptography. Veteran of cryptographic acceleration across post-quantum and homomorphic encryption with prior roles at Intel, Cornami, and Radical Semiconductor.

Executive Commentary

Olivier Roussy Newton, CEO, BTQ Technologies:

"Adding Sean and Zach full-time, alongside Anne's ongoing leadership, strengthens our ability to commercialize post-quantum hardware and software at speed. Their combined expertise in silicon, systems, and cryptography is exactly what customers need as they migrate to quantum-safe standards."

Zach Belateche:

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