Galaxy Puts $5M Bet on the Day Quantum Comes for Bitcoin's Keys 🗝️

Galaxy Digital on Tuesday unveiled a Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Initiative, committing up to $5 million in developer grants and launching a research effort and advisory council aimed at hardening the Bitcoin network against future quantum computing threats. The Nasdaq-listed firm said grant applications will open immediately, with funding flowing toward post-quantum cryptographic solutions, new signature schemes, wallet and custodian migration tooling and formal security audits.

The initiative's inaugural Quantum Advisory Council includes University of Calgary professor and Quantum City scientific director Barry Sanders, MIT Sea Grant Knauss Fellow Damien Bérubé, and Boston University computer science professor Eran Tromer. "As leaders in the digital assets space, we believe it's important that we help be part of the solution to any potential threat quantum computing poses to Bitcoin," said Mike Novogratz, founder and CEO of Galaxy. Analysis from the effort will be published through Galaxy Research.

Galaxy's program targets what researchers call "Q-Day," the point at which a quantum machine could use Shor's algorithm to derive a private key from an exposed public key, forge a signature and drain a wallet, with nothing on-chain flagging the transaction as fraudulent. Defenses under discussion include migrating funds to quantum-resistant addresses and adopting new signature schemes through proposals such as BIP-360 and BIP-361, though such upgrades could take years given Bitcoin's decentralized governance. Glassnode estimates roughly 30% of $BTC's supply could be exposed if cryptographically relevant quantum computers emerge, including 10% considered "structurally unsafe" by output type and 20% "operationally unsafe" due to key or address management.

The launch lands amid an accelerating warning cycle. A May report from quantum security firm Project Eleven concluded a cryptographically relevant quantum computer is more likely than not to exist by 2033 and potentially as early as 2030, estimating roughly 6.9 million $BTC sit in quantum-exposed addresses. In June, a Coinbase quantum advisory council urged developers to begin migration work rather than debate timing, pegging vulnerable supply at about 7 million $BTC. That same month, President Donald Trump signed two executive orders advancing U.S. quantum capabilities and moving the federal deadline for post-quantum cryptography to December 2031.

Industry views on the timeline remain split. In November 2025, Blockstream CEO Adam Back said Bitcoin faces no meaningful quantum threat for at least 20 to 40 years, citing ample time to adopt post-quantum cryptography standards approved by the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology in August 2024. Wealth management firm Bernstein said in an April report that Bitcoin has about three to five years to prepare for a post-quantum security upgrade. On July 16, Project Eleven unveiled a technique to let users prove wallet ownership after Q-Day by verifying control of a parent key rather than a signature.