Project Eleven acquires Riva Labs for post-quantum work

Project Eleven has acquired Riva Labs, putting post-quantum signatures, wallets, multi-party computation (MPC) and account abstraction on one research bench. The notice, published on September 29, 2026, comes from the company that is building post-quantum security infrastructure for digital assets, and the transaction is a talent and intellectual-property move. The reading that matters for a custody desk is structural: the signature scheme, the wallet, key management and the account layer are being staffed as one migration, while large firms keep extending the custody franchises that would have to consume whatever that migration produces.

The announcement says the deal also brings technology and intellectual property developed through Riva's work across Ethereum (ETH) and other public blockchains. The buyer's description of the target runs through hash-based post-quantum signatures, post-quantum MPC, account abstraction, wallet infrastructure and hardware signing, including recent demonstrations of post-quantum signing on consumer hardware. A demonstration on consumer hardware is a different operating surface from the digital-asset custody work the same notice assigns to the combined team, and the acquisition places both surfaces under Project Eleven.

Project Eleven says the industry is preparing for the complexity of a post-quantum migration, and that signatures, wallets, key management and protocol infrastructure need expertise across each layer required to make the transition practical. The urgency line is artificial intelligence (AI): the notice says AI is accelerating cryptographic research and cryptanalysis, and that Riva already made AI a core part of research and engineering. That capability now enters Project Eleven's work on post-quantum cryptography and crypto agility.

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What the founders put on the record

"Riva Labs is exactly the kind of talent we want at Project Eleven: deeply technical and focused on turning cryptographic research into systems that can actually be deployed. Bringing Riva into Project Eleven strengthens an already exceptional research and engineering team, adds valuable technology, and accelerates our ability to lead the transition to post-quantum security across digital assets."

Alex Pruden, chief executive and co-founder at Project Eleven, said that in the September 29 post.

"Project Eleven and Riva Labs came at this problem from different directions and reached many of the same conclusions about what the industry needs. Upgrading the public networks the future will run on, without compromising the properties that make them valuable in the first place, is a monumental challenge. Our focus is on giving the industry the tools to accelerate that transition, and joining Project Eleven lets us do it at a much larger scale."

Matteo Vena, co-founder at Riva Labs, set that view out in the same post.

Where the deal sits for custody desks

The Riva team and its technology become part of Project Eleven's broader research and product efforts across post-quantum cryptography, digital asset custody and blockchain security. Custody franchises have been moving on a separate track: Standard Chartered has signed a definitive agreement for Zodia Custody, Cactus Custody has opened a Swiss operation while leaving its audit in Asia, and Citi has folded Bitcoin (BTC) into Custody+, with the key holder left off that announcement. Those operating-model moves sit above the signature and key-management problem the Project Eleven notice is about.

MPC is already inside a bank custody workflow. FV Bank integrated a Fireblocks MPC wallet for its custody service, which put shared key control into production at a regulated firm. Project Eleven's narrower claim is that the same class of control has to keep working after the signature scheme changes, including the hash-based post-quantum signatures Riva has been translating into practical blockchain systems. Account abstraction sits in that claim because a migration that changes how a key signs also changes how an account authorises a transaction.

What can be watched from here

The causal chain in the two quotes is that a larger combined bench produces tools for upgrading public networks while those networks keep the properties Vena says make them valuable. The September 29 text names ETH and then groups every further chain under "other public blockchains," and a dated network cutover, a client roster and a closing condition sit outside that text. Public-network rebuilds are already a separate argument, including the Lean Ethereum plan mapped as a rebuild meant to rival the Merge. Chain teams will publish their own upgrade paths, while Project Eleven is bidding to supply signatures, wallets, MPC and account abstraction. Later output from the combined bench is what would make that bid operational, and it is the work the September 29 notice says the acquisition deepens.

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