BlockBeats news: On January 6, David Duong, head of global investment research at Coinbase, warned that as quantum computing technology accelerates in development, the long-term security of Bitcoin is entering "uncharted waters." He pointed out that the risks posed by quantum computing are significantly underestimated by the current $3.3 trillion cryptocurrency market.
Duong stated that approximately one-third of the Bitcoin supply is structurally at risk of having its private keys compromised by quantum computing brute-force attacks in the future, as the wallet public keys for these coins have already been publicly exposed. Although quantum computing is still in its early stages, the associated threats have evolved from theoretical concerns into real-world vulnerabilities.
He emphasized that compared to the potential impact of quantum computing on mining efficiency, the true core risk lies in digital signature security. Once quantum computers achieve sufficient computational power, attackers could potentially derive private keys from public keys, directly stealing Bitcoin assets.
Previously, institutions including BlackRock have explicitly listed quantum computing as a risk factor in their Bitcoin ETF filings. Some researchers have even predicted that quantum computing could pose a threat to Bitcoin's cryptographic system within 4–5 years.