Galaxy Digital, a US-based crypto financial services company, set up a US$5 million fund to support Bitcoin developers working on protections against future quantum computing attacks.

It is accepting grant applications focused on quantum-resistant signature schemes, wallet migration tools, and security audits.

The risk affects digital signatures, not Bitcoin’s supply or mining. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could reverse a revealed public key into a private key and forge a transaction.

Many newer address formats are less exposed until coins are spent for the first time.

The 6.9 million BTC estimate refers to coins whose public keys are already visible onchain, including early pay-to-public-key outputs and coins in reused addresses where earlier spending revealed the key.

That pool is estimated at about one-third of all bitcoin mined.

Developers are already working on migration proposals, including BIP-360, which merged into the official repository in February 2026, and BIP-361, which outlined a phased move away from legacy signatures.

Any shift is likely to be slow. Taproot activated in 2021, but wallet and exchange adoption took years. Larger post-quantum signatures could also raise fees and reduce throughput.

🔗 Source: CoinDesk