Galaxy Digital Pledges $5 Million for Bitcoin Quantum Defenses
Bitcoin uses elliptic-curve cryptography to authorize transactions, a foundation that sufficiently powerful quantum computers could eventually undermine by deriving private keys from exposed public keys. No cryptographically relevant quantum computer exists today, but Bitcoin’s decentralized governance makes security upgrades slow: new protections can take years to design, review, test and deploy. The issue matters because a successful signature attack could enable irreversible theft, increasing pressure to develop migration tools and post-quantum standards before the threat materializes.
Galaxy Digital Inc. launched the Galaxy Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Initiative on July 21, 2026, pledging up to $5 million in milestone-based grants for developers and researchers. The program has three pillars: funding for quantum-resistant transaction proposals, signature schemes, migration tools and security audits; continuing research and publications from Galaxy Research; and a Quantum Advisory Council. Galaxy said applications would open immediately. The council’s inaugural members are University of Calgary professor Barry Sanders, MIT Sea Grant Knauss Fellow Damien Bérubé and Boston University computer science professor Eran Tromer.
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The history behind this eventStarkWare Researcher Proposes Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Without a Soft Fork
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.
Galaxy Digital Says Bitcoin Faces a Real Quantum Threat, but Not Yet an Existential Crisis
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.
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