BitMine Immersion Technologies Inc. (NYSE:BMNR) Chair Tom Lee said on Monday that Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) faces a higher risk from quantum computing than Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) or Solana (CRYPTO: SOL).

Is Lee Sounding an Alarm for Bitcoin?

During an interview with CNBC, Lee acknowledged the looming threat, popularly known as “Q-Day”, when quantum computers become powerful enough to break standard internet encryption.

Lee said that Google Researchers believe Q-Day could come as early as 2028. To be clear, Google set an internal timeline of 2029 to migrate its entire infrastructure to post-quantum cryptography, and not exactly a Q-Day. It did however, warn that quantum frontiers "may be closer than they appear.”

Lee noted that networks such as Ethereum and Solana are developing quantum resistance, so it’s “probably not gonna be a problem” for them.

“But for bitcoin they haven’t come to a consensus on how to prevent Q-Day,” the Fundstrat co-founder said.

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Potential Threat to Bitcoin

For Bitcoin, quantum computing poses a theoretical risk: private keys could be derived from exposed public keys in 9 minutes, opening a pathway for unauthorized access to funds.

An estimated 6.26 million BTC is currently held in quantum-vulnerable addresses. The community hasn’t arrived at a consensus on what to do with these coins. One section wants these coins to be permanently unspendable to keep hackers from hacking them.

Jameson Lopp, co-founder and chief security officer at self-custody platform firm Casa, has estimated a “greater than 50% chance” that it will take at least another decade before a quantum computer emerges that could pose a threat to Bitcoin.

Not an Existential Risk, Say Crypto Figures

Cryptocurrency luminaries, including Binance (CRYPTO: BNB) founder Changpeng Zhao, Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) CEO and Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ:MSTR), have dismissed the idea that Bitcoin faces an existential risk from quantum computing.

Coinbase, in fact, announced the formation of an advisory board earlier this year to assess the implications of quantum computing and prepare for “threats.”

A suggested that a protocol update to protect Bitcoin from quantum computing threats could require nearly 305 days of downtime if only 25% of the bandwidth is allowed for the process.

That said, not everybody is sweating over the so-called Q-day. International Business Machines Corp (NYSE:IBM) CEO Arvind Krishna said quantum computing could start having a “measurable impact” on the company’s revenue and profit by 2028 or 2029.

Price Action: At the time of writing, BTC was exchanging hands at $64,588.02, up 0.61% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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