šŸ“° Why the exposure of 6.26 million Bitcoin public keys is jolting the crypto world awake?

Glassnode’s founder has just shared a scary new figure: 6.26 million Bitcoin public keys are directly exposed on the internet, and anyone can look them up. The number is even higher than last year—meaning that if the private keys behind that many BTC wallets are attacked by quantum computers, the funds could be wiped out.

Right now, the whole industry is panicking. People are rushing to check whether their own systems have any vulnerabilities, and exchanges are especially nervous.

The root cause is that quantum computing—the ā€œSword of Damoclesā€ā€”is getting closer. As long as a Bitcoin address stays idle for a long time, or has low transaction activity, quantum computers can derive the corresponding private key from exposed public keys.

What does the 6.26 million figure mean? It means that in today’s Bitcoin ecosystem, 1 out of every 10 wallets has become a ā€œlive target.ā€ On the day of a quantum breakthrough, those exposed public keys would turn into worthless copper scrap.

So what the industry fears most is no longer hackers, but a future moment when quantum computers suddenly ā€œunlockā€ the capability.

Market impact
In the short term, this news will only push BTC and ETH lower. ETH may drop faster because the Ethereum ecosystem chain is longer, making the quantum threat more direct. But in the medium to long term, it could force industry-wide change. For example, exchanges may have to massively rebuild wallet systems, or all cold wallet addresses could be forced to migrate to quantum-resistant versions.

That would mean that, over the next few years, crypto assets could accelerate their digitalization—flowing on the blockchain the way paper money circulates.

Similar historical references? In 2017, Litecoin was almost cracked by quantum calculations due to low trading volume. That time, the whole industry upgraded wallet algorithms overnight. This time, Bitcoin’s scale is much larger, so the impact would likely be even more severe.

šŸ’” I think it may keep falling in the short term, but once it breaks below $80K, an opportunity could appear. If the Fed really ā€œpumps liquidityā€ this time, Bitcoin could rebound to $83K. But keep in mind: if a quantum breakthrough happens earlier than expected, $80K becomes a hard deadline.

This article has no sponsorship from any project. The author does not hold any of the assets mentioned.

Source: CryptoBriefing

āš ļø Not investment advice; predictions are for reference only