Google has warned the crypto industry that a looming quantum threat may be closer than previously anticipated, suggesting that markets have significantly underestimated how quickly the risk could materialize.
However, SpaceX/Tesla CEO Elon Musk suggested there could be an unexpected benefit—lost Bitcoin passwords might one day be retrievable.
Crypto on Edge After Google Drops Major Quantum Bombshell
As ZyCrypto reported earlier, a research paper released late Monday by Google’s Quantum AI team claimed that cracking the 256-bit elliptic curve cryptography securing Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets may require fewer than 500,000 physical qubits—a unit used in quantum computing. This marks a roughly 20-fold drop from earlier projections, which estimated the need for several million qubits.
The paper also outlined how a sufficiently advanced quantum computer could potentially break Bitcoin private keys in roughly nine minutes after a transaction reveals the public key, giving an attacker about a 41% chance of exploiting the gap before the network’s typical 10-minute confirmation time.
The paper estimates that around 6.9 million Bitcoin—roughly one-third of the total supply—are held in wallets where public keys have already been exposed. This includes about 1.7 million BTC from the network’s early days, including holdings attributed to the elusive Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, as well as additional funds tied to address reuse.
 
According to Google, these dormant holdings could effectively become a “fixed prize pool” for attackers, with limited means of preventing theft in a decentralized system.
“No Need To Panic”
Commenting on Satoshi Nakamoto specifically, former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said that if those coins were to move during a migration, it would suggest the creator is still active— “which is interesting to know.” However, he added that if they remain untouched, it may be better to lock or effectively burn those addresses to prevent them from falling into the hands of the first attacker to crack them.
CZ urged calm, while acknowledging the challenges involved in implementation in decentralized networks.
“All crypto has to do is upgrade to quantum-resistant algorithms. So, no need to panic,” Zhao opined. “In practice, there are some execution considerations. It’s hard to organize upgrades in a decentralized world.”
Meanwhile, Elon Musk has become increasingly active within the Bitcoin community over the past two days. Just yesterday, he caught the crypto community off guard by turning a static, Bitcoin-themed anime-style illustration into a short animated clip.
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