A new report from Quantus warns that the crypto industry is moving too slowly to prepare for quantum computers that could break today's signature systems — putting an estimated $2 trillion in Bitcoin and other crypto assets at risk. The report, released this week, highlights a structural problem that Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other major networks have yet to solve: public keys live permanently on-chain, making them vulnerable to future quantum attacks.
The $2 trillion target
Quantus estimates that quantum computers could eventually compromise the cryptographic signatures protecting roughly $2 trillion worth of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency holdings. That figure covers the current market value exposed if a sufficiently powerful machine were to appear before networks can upgrade. The report doesn't name a specific date, but it notes that advances from Google and IBM are pushing the threat window closer.
The on-chain dilemma
Bitcoin and Ethereum face a migration problem that goes beyond simply updating wallet software. Because public keys are recorded on-chain the moment a transaction is spent, an attacker with a quantum computer could later derive the private key from that public key and steal funds. The report says this makes the migration far trickier than a standard software upgrade — old UTXOs and addresses with exposed keys remain vulnerable even after a network hard fork.
Quantum timelines tightening
Google and IBM have both made public progress on quantum hardware over the past year. While no machine today can break elliptic-curve crypto at scale, the Quantus report argues that the crypto industry's usual pace of upgrade cycles is too slow. Developers have debated post-quantum signatures for years, but no major network has committed to a concrete migration timeline. The report suggests that waiting until a threat is imminent could leave little room for error.
The question now is whether Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other chains will start treating this as an active engineering priority — or keep kicking the can until a quantum machine changes the math.
