Coinbase Prepares Post-Quantum Custody Plan for Quarter-Trillion Dollars

Coinbase is working on a plan to secure its post-quantum custody systems for around $250 billion in institutional assets, including Bitcoin (BTC).

The company's goal is to support multiple post-quantum signature standards, rather than relying on a single method.

Coinbase currently uses multiparty computation (MPC) in its custody systems, which divides control of a private key among several parties.

However, MPC may not work efficiently with every post-quantum signature system, particularly hash-based designs, which can lack the mathematical properties used to split traditional cryptographic keys.

Coinbase is also exploring an alternative approach based on programmable hardware security modules (HSMs), which would assemble private keys within physically secured devices at private data centers.