Quantum computing is moving from theory to practice, and anew whitepaper warns that major cryptocurrencies need to react much faster thanthey have so far. The study shows that once a powerful enough quantum computerexists, it could break the cryptography behind Bitcoin, Ethereum and otherchains in minutes, putting both long‑dormant and active assets at risk.Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!)A new quantum‑computing study warns that around2.3 million dormant, vulnerable BTC could become a multi‑billion‑dollarprize the moment a powerful quantum machine comes online.Simply, this new research says that once powerful quantumcomputers arrive, they will be able to “guess” some old Bitcoin keys fastenough to move coins that nobody can currently access, turning a huge pool offorgotten BTC into a prize for whoever gets the technology first.Google Quantum AI released a whitepaper warning that cracking 256-bit ECC, widely used in crypto wallets, requires fewer resources than expected. With under 500k physical qubits, it could be cracked in minutes. Google urged the industry to accelerate its migration to Post-Quantum… pic.twitter.com/DpdSPmYhYc— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) March 31, 2026Dormant Bitcoin as a Quantum Time BombThe paper estimates that a future “fast‑clock” quantum computer with fewer than 500,000 physical qubitscould use Shor’s algorithm to break Bitcoin’s 256‑bit elliptic curve in about nine minutes from a primedstate. That speed is comparable to Bitcoin’saverage 10‑minute block time, meaning an attacker couldpotentially intercept some pending transactions and redirect funds before theyconfirm.Read more: Quantum Computing and Payment SecurityGoogle’s team showed, on paper, that you no longer need asci‑fi‑levelquantum supercomputer to break the math that protects Bitcoin and Ethereum. You“just”need a realistically sized, next‑generation machine, and once thatexists an attacker could watch the network, grab your public key while yourtransaction sits waiting to be confirmed, and mathematically recover yourprivate key fast enough to steal the coins before they hit a block.Vitalik Buterin warned at the Devconnect conference that elliptic curve cryptography could be broken by quantum computing before the 2028 U.S. presidential election, urging Ethereum to upgrade to quantum-resistant cryptography within four years. He also stated that future…— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) November 19, 2025“Here is the terrifying part: When you send Bitcoin, yourpublic key is exposed in the "mempool" for about 10 minutes beforethe transaction is confirmed in a block,” according to Simplifying AI. “Google’s researchers compiled a quantum circuit that cantheoretically derive your private key from that exposed public key in roughly 9minutes.” Industry Outlook: From FUD to Forced MigrationThe whitepaper argues that full migration to post‑quantumcryptography is technically clear but politically and operationally difficult.Post‑quantumsignatures are larger and heavier, so upgrades would raise bandwidth andstorage needs and almost certainly reopen old governance fights, especially inBitcoin.“Pull your cryptographic inventory. Flag every ECC-256implementation on high-value assets. Identify every system where the algorithmis hardcoded rather than configurable. Those are your agility gaps and yourlongest-lead-time risk,” commented Cory Missimore, AI Governance expert.At the same time, leaving dormant assets untouched invites arace between criminals, states and possibly regulated “digital salvage”operators seeking legal rights to recover and liquidate compromised coins. Vitalik Buterin told developers that the kind ofcryptography Ethereum uses today might be breakable by quantum computers soonerthan many expect, possibly even before the 2028 U.S. election, so the networkshould move to quantum‑resistant cryptography within about four years. At the same time, he argued that most new experimentationshould happen on Layer 2s, in wallets and in privacy tech, while keeping thebase layer as simple and stable as possible.This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.