The BMNR chairman said Bitcoin lacks consensus on a quantum-defense plan, while Ethereum and Solana are developing protections and some industry figures argue the threat remains distant.
Bitmine (BMNR) Chairman Tom Lee said Bitcoin faces greater quantum-computing risk than Ethereum or Solana because the Bitcoin community has not agreed on how to respond if quantum machines become powerful enough to break today’s cryptography. In a CNBC interview, Lee pointed to the idea of a coming "Q-Day" and said Google researchers suggest the threat could arrive as early as 2028, though Google has more specifically set a 2029 internal target to migrate its own infrastructure to post-quantum cryptography and warned that quantum frontiers may be closer than they appear. Lee said Ethereum and Solana are developing quantum resistance and are therefore "probably not gonna be a problem," whereas Bitcoin still lacks consensus on mitigation. The main theoretical risk to Bitcoin centers on addresses with exposed public keys, where sufficiently advanced quantum computers could derive private keys in minutes and seize funds. The latest estimate cited in the report put 6.26 million BTC in quantum-vulnerable addresses, while earlier estimates referenced roughly 7 million BTC, or about 30% to 35% of supply. The debate remains unsettled. Some in the Bitcoin community want vulnerable coins to be made permanently unspendable to prevent theft, while others oppose intervention. Casa co-founder and chief security officer Jameson Lopp said there is a greater than 50% chance it will take at least another decade before a quantum computer can threaten Bitcoin. Coinbase has formed an advisory board to study the issue, and a separate estimate suggested a protocol update under constrained bandwidth could require nearly 305 days of downtime. Other industry figures, including Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, have dismissed the idea that Bitcoin faces an existential quantum threat.