Wall Street arms bitcoin against quantum with 15 million
Strategy, BlackRock, Coinbase and six other heavyweights launched the Bitcoin Security Consortium on 23 July, pledging 15 million dollars (roughly €13 million) over three years. The trigger: more than seven million bitcoin — around 460.8 billion dollars (roughly €403 billion) — sit on the blockchain with an exposed public key.
The world's largest institutional bitcoin holders have done something they rarely do: joined forces. On 23 July 2026, nine firms unveiled the Bitcoin Security Consortium, a joint pledge of 15 million dollars (roughly €13 million) over three years for the long-term security of the bitcoin network. First priority: cryptography that can withstand quantum computers.
Who is involved
The nine founding members are Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), BlackRock, Coinbase, Galaxy Digital, Fidelity Digital Assets, Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, Block and Blockstream. Between them they manage or custody a large share of all institutionally held bitcoin. The money does not go into a single pot: each member directs its own contribution straight to the developers and research groups it chooses. Mike Schmidt, executive director of developer fund Brink, coordinates the effort in a voluntary capacity.
‘As long-term holders, we have every incentive to see Bitcoin remain secure for generations,’ said Strategy chief executive Phong Le at the announcement.
Why quantum hits bitcoin specifically
Bitcoin secures balances with elliptic-curve digital signatures. As long as your public key stays hidden behind an address, there is little to attack. But the moment you spend from an address, that public key is written permanently onto the blockchain. In bitcoin's earliest outputs — the pay-to-public-key outputs from the opening years — it was visible from the start. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could derive the matching private key from such a public key.
What is at stake
Blockchain analysis shows that more than seven million bitcoin carry an exposed public key: 34.9% of the supply examined, worth around 460.8 billion dollars (roughly €403 billion) at this week's prices. Around 77,275 BTC join that group every month, simply because people move their coins. Research outfit Project Eleven previously arrived at about 6.9 million vulnerable bitcoin — a different counting method, the same order of magnitude.
BIP-361 and the migration
On the table sits BIP-361, co-authored by security researcher Jameson Lopp. It sets out a phased move away from ECDSA and Schnorr signatures towards quantum-resistant alternatives. A separate idea called ‘Hourglass’ circulates for old outputs whose owners will most likely never reappear. Neither has been adopted. That is precisely where the consortium comes in: it funds the research, the code and the peer review such a decision requires.
How urgent is this
‘Q-Day’ — the point at which a quantum computer breaks modern encryption — is placed by researchers at 2030 at the earliest, with considerable uncertainty in both directions. US presidential orders require federal high-value systems to run post-quantum cryptography by the end of 2031. Migrating the entire bitcoin network takes years, so waiting until the deadline arrives is not an option.
What it means for you
Nothing changes about your wallet's safety today. One habit is worth adopting now, though: do not reuse addresses. As long as you have never spent from an address, your public key appears nowhere. Modern wallets generate a fresh address for every incoming payment by default — simply leave that setting alone.
Sources: The Block, CryptoSlate, CoinDesk, Bitcoin Magazine. Last checked: 25 July 2026.