Quantum Exposure Found in 1.6 Million Bitcoin Exposed

A recent study by Glassnode found that approximately 1.6 million BTC are at risk of being exposed to quantum attacks due to their public keys being visible on-chain.

This is a significant concern, as it could potentially allow a sufficiently powerful future quantum computer to break the signatures and access these coins without needing to wait for their owners to spend them.

The study identified that 6.04 million BTC, or around 30.2% of the total issued supply, had public-key exposure at rest in May. This includes 1.63 million BTC attributed to exchanges, which is roughly 8.1% of the total supply.

Coinbase has acknowledged the risk but downplayed its immediate threat, stating that no cryptographically relevant quantum computer capable of breaking Bitcoin's signatures currently exists.