Coinbase is preparing for a future in which quantum computers could potentially break Bitcoin's current cryptography, the company announced Thursday.

The largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange acknowledged that while the quantum threat is not imminent, difficult challenges — including migrating millions of users and coordinating protocol upgrades across decentralized systems — must be addressed proactively.

Bitcoin relies on the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) for transaction signing. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer running Shor's algorithm could theoretically derive private keys from public keys, undermining the cryptographic assumptions that secure billions of dollars in digital assets.

Quantum computers remain experimental and error-prone, yet some members of the crypto community have raised concerns that future advancements could eventually compromise Bitcoin's cryptographic foundations.

"There's a lot of noise about quantum computing right now," Coinbase said. "Some of it is hype. Some of it is fear. And some of it is real."

The publicly listed company stated that a large-scale quantum computer capable of breaking current cryptography will eventually be built, and therefore preparation work must begin now, "not when it's urgent."

Coinbase's Post-Quantum Roadmap

Coinbase's Independent Advisory Board on Quantum Computing and Blockchain, established earlier this year, plans to deliver a post-quantum signing pipeline utilizing secure enclaves and threshold cryptography.

The exchange noted that its current key management system already protects approximately 99.9% of the assets under its custody. Within the next year, Coinbase intends to deliver an automated signing pipeline that will enable quantum-safe custody as soon as blockchains begin adopting post-quantum cryptographic schemes.

That timing aligns with broader standardization efforts underway at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, which has been evaluating and publishing post-quantum cryptographic algorithms — including lattice-based schemes such as CRYSTALS-Dilithium — that blockchain networks could eventually integrate.

Additionally, Coinbase said it is convening Bitcoin core developers, cryptographers, and researchers to discuss post-quantum migration strategy, with plans to hold these discussions on a regular basis.

"Preparing Bitcoin for a post-quantum world is one of the most consequential and complex challenges the protocol has ever faced," the exchange said.

Coinbase is also a founding member of the newly formed Bitcoin Security Consortium — alongside BlackRock, Fidelity Digital Assets, Block, and others — which contributes funding and engineering resources to open-source work supporting proposals such as BIP-360, a draft Bitcoin Improvement Proposal that would introduce quantum-resistant transaction types.

The Quantum Threat Debate

Crypto companies and protocols have been planning for a hypothetical future in which quantum computers can break leading cryptographic systems ever since Google researchers stated last year that improvements in quantum computing may eventually enable breaking the cryptography protecting major cryptocurrencies in as little as nine minutes.

Some in the community have dismissed these warnings as overblown, while others have already begun preparing for a post-quantum future by testing quantum-resistant signatures on live sidechains.

This article first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and was written by Mathew Di Salvo.