The rapid advancement of quantum computers is forcing the cryptocurrency industry to rethink its foundational cryptography. On Thursday, June 11, 2026, Coinbase’s Independent Advisory Board on Quantum Computing and Blockchain urged developers to begin migrating networks to post-quantum security immediately. Researchers warn that by 2030, a “cryptographically relevant quantum computer” capable of breaking the elliptic curve digital signatures used by Bitcoin will likely exist.
This timeline puts roughly 7 million older Bitcoin directly at risk. These funds sit in legacy addresses where public keys are already exposed to the network. That vulnerable stash includes the untouched genesis cache belonging to Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, along with millions of lost coins. The Coinbase report outlines three industry options to handle these legacy assets: permanently freeze or burn them after a specific deadline, leave them alone to respect absolute property rights, or limit how many can move per block.
The risk extends well beyond Bitcoin. In April 2026, the same Coinbase advisory council warned that proof-of-stake networks like Ethereum and Solana face severe vulnerabilities due to their specific validator signatures.
How the Ethereum Foundation and Stellar Are Reacting
The broader crypto industry is actively scrambling to build defenses before the hardware catches up. The Ethereum Foundation launched a dedicated post-quantum security team in January 2026, and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published a quantum upgrade roadmap shortly after in February.
Just this past Tuesday, the Stellar Development Foundation revealed its own migration plan. The unified push across major protocols highlights a clear realization among developers: upgrading network security to protect user assets is moving from theoretical research to mandatory engineering.