Galaxy Commits $5 Million to Make Bitcoin Quantum-Ready

Bitcoin relies on elliptic-curve cryptography to authenticate wallet transactions. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could derive private keys from exposed public keys, allowing an attacker to forge signatures and seize funds. The risk is not immediate, but migration is complex because blockchains must distinguish legitimate owners from attackers after conventional signatures fail. Coinbase’s quantum advisory council said in June 2026 that about 7 million bitcoin could eventually be exposed if holders do not move assets to quantum-safe addresses.

On July 15, 2026, Project Eleven unveiled a post-quantum zero-knowledge proof developed with Jim Posen, lead maintainer of the open-source Binius proof system. The method uses BIP-32 wallet derivation to prove control of key material above an address without revealing it, potentially authorizing recovery into a quantum-safe wallet. On an M5 MacBook Air, the prototype generated a proof in 243 milliseconds using four cores and verified it in 40 milliseconds, with 2.1 GB of peak proving memory. It supports P2PKH, P2WPKH and P2SH-P2WPKH addresses, but remains unaudited and requires protocol-level integration.

Bitcoin relies on elliptic-curve cryptography to verify ownership and authorize transactions. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could theoretically derive private keys from exposed public keys, putting some older addresses at risk, though no such machine exists today. The issue matters because upgrading a decentralized network is slow: any defense must be researched, agreed upon and deployed across wallets, exchanges, miners and users well before the threat becomes practical.

On July 23, 2026, BlackRock, Coinbase, Strategy and six other firms launched the Bitcoin Security Consortium, pledging a combined $15 million over three years for developers, security research and post-quantum cryptography. Members will allocate their commitments independently rather than place the money in a central fund, and the group says it will not direct Bitcoin development or take positions on protocol changes. Brink Executive Director Mike Schmidt will coordinate its day-to-day work as a volunteer.

Bitcoin transactions rely on elliptic-curve digital signatures. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm could derive private keys from exposed public keys and steal assets. Replacing the signature mechanism would require network-wide consensus and asset migration, drawing attention to StarkWare’s upgrade-free approach as a fallback until longer-term changes such as BIP-360 are completed.

On April 9, 2026, StarkWare Chief Product Officer and BIP-360 co-author Avihu Levy published the QSB paper and open-source code. The system uses Bitcoin’s existing Script constraints and hash-based proofs to create quantum-resistant transactions without a soft fork or miner activation. Each transaction requires substantial offline GPU computation at an estimated cost of $75–$200, and the tool is currently intended for emergency recovery.

Quantum computers could theoretically derive private keys from public keys exposed on-chain, allowing attackers to forge signatures and steal assets. Cybersecurity organization Project Eleven estimates that about 7 million Bitcoin may face long-term exposure, worth roughly $470 billion at recent prices. Most wallets whose public keys have not been revealed are currently unaffected, however, meaning the risk does not extend across the entire network.

Galaxy Digital research head Alex Thorn said on March 19, 2026, that the quantum threat was real but did not yet pose an existential crisis for Bitcoin. Research analyst Will Owens added on March 20 that related proposals had increased markedly since late 2025. Developers are advancing quantum-resistant addresses, BIP 360 and phased upgrade plans, while investors should currently view the issue as a long-term technical challenge.