Bitcoin and Ether Under AI Pressure: “Bunker Mode” for Holdings on Already Signed Addresses

The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry a high degree of risk. Always conduct your own research.A researcher at the Ethereum Foundation considers a break of the ECDSA signature by AI possible within months in the worst case, and advises large holders to move to addresses that have never been used. Vitalik Buterin disagrees on the pace, and Coinbase's chief cryptographer sees no evidence.Justin Drake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, wrote on X on October 7, 2026 that artificial intelligence may break the signatures of Bitcoin and Ethereum sooner than a quantum computer will. He called on the industry to plan a “bunker mode” for large holdings: an orderly move to addresses that have never signed a transfer. The short answer to the question hanging on this: your coins are not under acute threat today. There is no demonstrated attack on the signature scheme, Drake is describing a worst case, and clear objections came out of the cryptography world within hours. The point matters all the same, because it touches a property of blockchains that most holders have never not...