Quantum Threat Sparks Proposal to Freeze Dormant Bitcoin Wallets

CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju has suggested that Bitcoin (BTC) may need to freeze dormant wallets, including the roughly 1 million BTC attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto, as a future protocol response to the threat posed by quantum computing.

According to Ki, a quantum-resistant upgrade could require restricting access to coins held in older address formats whose public keys are already exposed onchain. He estimated that about 6.89 million BTC could be vulnerable under a scenario in which sufficiently powerful quantum machines can derive private keys from exposed public keys.

Ki noted that long-inactive holdings, approximately 3.4 million BTC, could become a primary incentive for attackers if quantum capabilities reach a level where such operations are economically viable. At current market prices, those coins represent hundreds of billions of dollars in potential value.

Implementing defensive measures would require broad agreement across the Bitcoin ecosystem, which Ki described as historically slow and contentious. He warned that coins considered secure today could become spendable by an attacker in the future if the network does not migrate to quantum-resistant cryptography.