Bitcoin faces an unprecedented quantum computing threat that bulls cannot ignore

Bitcoin has survived exchange collapses, regulatory crackdowns, and multiple cycles of 80% drawdowns. None of those tested the foundation of the network itself. Quantum computing might. A June 2026 research paper estimated that roughly 35% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply is exposed to potential quantum attacks, the result of 17 years of on-chain transactions leaving cryptographic fingerprints that a sufficiently powerful quantum machine could exploit. The timeline just got a lot shorter Google’s research published in March 2026 changed that framing. The finding: such capabilities could arrive as soon as 2029. That is not decades away. That is roughly the same distance in time as the last Bitcoin halving. In plain terms, elliptic-curve cryptography is the lock on every Bitcoin wallet. A sufficiently advanced quantum computer would have the key. Funds sitting in exposed addresses, particularly older wallets where the public key has been revealed on-chain, would be at risk of being drained before the owner could respond. Citigroup flagged the same concern, noting that advances in artificial intelligence are accelerating the quantum development timeline in ways that earlier forecasts f...