Crypto’s biggest theoretical threat doesn’t come from a market crash or a regulator’s pen — it comes from physics. Researchers are edging closer to quantum computers powerful enough to break the math that secures digital assets, and that has pushed quantum computing crypto risk from a fringe worry into a topic major exchanges, blockchain founders and standards bodies are now discussing openly.
Key takeaways
- More than $2 trillion in digital assets rely on elliptic curve cryptography that has been known to be quantum-vulnerable for over 30 years, according to Quantus co-founder Christopher Smith.
- That figure covers nearly the entire crypto market, valued around $2.16 trillion.
- Google researchers estimate that breaking a 256-bit…







