Bitcoin Quantum Threat Exaggerated, XRP Exposure Minimal

Bitcoin developers have proposed a plan to freeze quantum-vulnerable addresses, which could potentially wipe out around 30% of the asset's supply. However, this figure is not as alarming as it seems, as most of these exposed addresses are technically vulnerable but realistically unexploitable.

Glassnode research found that 6.04 million BTC, or 30.2% of issued supply, sits in wallets whose public keys are already visible on the blockchain. But this number breaks down into 1.92 million BTC (9.6%) that is structurally exposed and 4.12 million BTC (20.6%) that is operationally exposed through address reuse.

On the other hand, an XRP Ledger validator audit found that only about 0.03% of the asset's supply, or roughly 21 million XRP, sits in dormant large-holder accounts with exposed public keys. This low number reflects the ledger and supply structure of XRP, not its cryptographic superiority.

The Bitcoin community is debating whether to adopt BIP-361, which targets already-exposed supply, or BIP-360, which creates a quantum-resistant address type called Pay-to-Quantum-Resistant-Hash. Ripple has published its own plan for post-quantum signatures, with a four-phase roadmap that includes emergency Q-Day recovery contingency and full network-wide transition to post-quantum signatures by 2028.