Glassnode Warns 31.2% of Bitcoin Supply Has Exposed Public Keys, Raising Quantum Risk

Bitcoin’s long-term security is facing renewed scrutiny after Glassnode co-founder Rafael Schultze-Kraft estimated that 6.26 million BTC, representing 31.2% of the cryptocurrency’s supply, sits in addresses with exposed public keys. 

The findings follow an urgent warning from Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, who urged the blockchain industry to prepare for a potential cryptographic breakthrough that could put existing wallets at risk.

“Today I call upon the blockchain industry to calmly begin planning for ‘bunker mode,” Drake wrote in a post on X Wednesday, recommending a controlled migration of assets to fresh addresses whose public keys remain hidden behind a hash.

Drake warned that the threat might emerge sooner than anticipated, arguing that “it is now reasonable to brace for the possibility that ECDSA breaks before qday, in the worst case in months, not years.”

For context, ECDSA is the digital signature scheme Bitcoin uses. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could theoretically exploit its mathematical structure to recover private keys from exposed public keys. Drake also raised the possibility that advances in artificial intelligence could accelerate mathematical breakthroughs that weaken existing cryptography.