Europol warns that quantum risk is concentrated in exposed wallets

AI-assisted source synthesis · not an independent investigation.

On October 7, 2026, CoinDesk reported that Europol published a report stating that the primary exposure point for future quantum-computing attacks is cryptocurrency wallets, not the blockchain itself; currently, no quantum computer capable of carrying out such attacks exists. The report stated that approximately 6.9 million bitcoins are held in addresses whose public keys have been exposed, including early and long-dormant wallets, and that a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could use this information to derive private keys and transfer the assets. On October 8, Cryptopolitan reported that Europol believes quantum computers cannot break the blockchain, and that wallets with publicly disclosed public keys should migrate their funds before an attack. Earlier reports stated that the public keys of approximately 6.9 million bitcoins had been exposed; subsequent reports stated that the figure was 6.04 million bitcoins as of May, representing 30.2% of the supply, while another estimate put it at 6.9 million bitcoins. Subsequent reports also stated that migrating Bitcoin would require at least 76 days of downtime, and that post-quantum signatures standardized by NIST are 10 to 120 times larger than the ECDSA signatures used by Bitcoin.

AI-written from reports · updated 8 days ago