Galaxy Commits $5 Million to Harden Bitcoin Against Quantum Risk

Galaxy Digital has launched a $5 million initiative to fund the development of quantum-resistant defenses for the Bitcoin network. The Nasdaq-listed firm will distribute developer grants, finance research, and convene an advisory council to address a cryptographic vulnerability that could eventually expose user funds.

Bitcoin relies on elliptic curve cryptography, a system vulnerable to Shor’s algorithm. If a sufficiently powerful quantum computer is built, an attacker could derive private keys from exposed public keys and drain wallets without leaving an on-chain trace. An estimated 1.7 million BTC currently sit in legacy addresses where these public keys are permanently visible.

“There’s a gap between the quantum computing world, which is moving fast, and the Bitcoin development world, which is just beginning to engage with post-quantum cryptography in earnest,” said Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy. He characterized the threat as a long-term engineering problem rather than an immediate crisis.

Defenses require migrating the network to quantum-resistant address types and new signature schemes. Developer Hunter Beast proposed BIP-360 this year to remove public-key exposure from standard transactions, and BTQ Technologies has already deployed a working implementation on a quantum testnet.

The primary obstacle to an upgrade is governance. Bitcoin’s decentralized structure turns protocol changes into a slow process of design, review, and testing that can span years. The pool of developers currently working on post-quantum cryptography remains small relative to the scale of the network.

Galaxy’s grant program will directly fund work on quantum-resistant transaction proposals, wallet migration tooling, and formal security audits. “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.

The initiative arrives as governments accelerate their own quantum defenses. President Trump recently signed executive orders advancing U.S. quantum work with a 2031 deadline for post-quantum defense, following NIST's finalization of post-quantum standards in 2024. Barry Sanders, a member of Galaxy's new Quantum Advisory Council, noted that quantum timelines “continue to compress” and argued bitcoin should not be an exception to the preparations underway across industries.