It might be too late for bitcoin’s quantum migration, Project Eleven report argues
Quantum computing does not only pose a risk to up to $3 trillion in digital assets, it also threatens the security of banking systems, military communications, digital identities and more, Project Eleven’s report warns.
What to know:
- A new 110-page report from Project Eleven warns that more than $3 trillion in digital assets secured by elliptic curve cryptography could become vulnerable to quantum attacks within four to seven years.
- The report says a “Q-Day” — when quantum computers can break widely used public-key cryptography — could arrive as early as 2030 and no later than 2033, threatening blockchains, banking, cloud systems and military communications.
- Migrating global financial and digital infrastructure, including Bitcoin, to post-quantum cryptography could take a decade and is hampered less by technical limits than by the need for costly, highly coordinated action across users, institutions and networks.
“The digital asset industry holds over $3 trillion in aggregate value, and virtually all of it is secured by the same class of cryptographic primitive: elliptic curve digital signatures,” which are vulnerable to quantum computing attacks, the report said.
But it is not only crypto that is at stake here. The report states that the same public-key cryptography security used by bitcoin, ether and stablecoins also underpins banking systems, cloud infrastructure, authentication networks and military communications.
The 110-page report by Project Eleven, whose CEO Alex Pruden was on stage at Consensus Miami 2026, also states that sufficiently powerful quantum computers could use Shor’s algorithm to derive private keys from public keys, allowing attackers to forge signatures and take over control of wallets and digital accounts secured by the elliptic curve cryptography.
