Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake has warned that artificial intelligence may break the cryptographic encryption protecting crypto wallets before quantum computers do — and possibly within months. Speaking on Wednesday, he urged the blockchain industry to begin planning for what he calls "bunker mode," a controlled migration of funds to addresses considered safe from such attacks.

The warning was featured in Decrypt's Morning Minute, a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt.

Drake's "Bunker Mode" Call

Drake has spent years cautioning that quantum computers could eventually break the math protecting crypto wallets. On Wednesday, he said something more alarming: AI might get there first.

His recommendation is for holders to move coins to fresh addresses that have never sent a transaction, so their public keys remain hidden behind a hash.

Today call upon the blockchain industry to calmly begin planning for "bunker mode". My personal recommendation is to set in motion a controlled mass migration of assets to fresh addresses, i.e. addresses whose pubkeys remain hidden behind a hash. Holders, starting with large… — Justin Drake (@drakefjustin) October 7, 2026 (source)

Why Exposed Public Keys Matter

Every crypto wallet has a private key that the owner keeps secret and a public key derived from it. The public key stays hidden behind a scrambled version of itself until the owner spends from the wallet. The moment a transaction is sent, the public key becomes visible on the blockchain permanently.

If someone figures out how to work backward from a public key to a private key, every wallet that has ever sent money is exposed. Wallets that have only ever received funds are not. That distinction is the entire premise of bunker mode: hashing can shield a public key indefinitely, but once a key has been revealed onchain, no later fix restores protection — moving funds in time is the only remedy.

The system performing that math is called ECDSA, and both Bitcoin and Ethereum rely on it. Drake said it is now reasonable to prepare for ECDSA breaking before quantum computers arrive — in the worst case, in months rather than years. By breaking, he means recovering someone's private key in about a week using a large cluster of graphics cards. No such break has been demonstrated; the warning is a call to prepare for a scenario Drake considers plausible, not a report of an achieved attack.

What changed his thinking is how quickly AI is solving hard math problems. He pointed to 722 mathematical results OpenAI published on Tuesday. His argument is that elliptic curves — the mathematical structure ECDSA is built on — contain exactly the kind of rich patterns a superintelligent system might exploit, while the hashing used to hide public keys is designed to resist that.

Call to Major Platforms and "Satoshi's Shield"

Drake named Binance, Bitbank, Robinhood, Bitfinex, and Tether, asking them to harden their cold storage. Whether any of the named platforms acknowledge or act on the request would be the first concrete signal of how the industry weighs the warning.

He also offered small holders an unusual form of comfort. Roughly 20,000 addresses believed to belong to Bitcoin's creator each hold 50 BTC with exposed public keys. Anyone who cracked the encryption would likely go after those coins first, drawing attention away from smaller holders — a dynamic he calls "Satoshi's shield."

Drake was careful to say do not panic and do not rush. He advised beginning the process of moving self-custodied crypto into new, safe wallets. Alternatives include using ETFs, using a proven custodian such as Coinbase, or working with experts to ensure best practices. Warner concluded that any action is likely better than burying one's head in the sand and hoping the threat passes.

Macro Crypto and Markets

Crypto majors were in the red, down another 2-3% along with stocks: BTC -1% at $82.6k, ETH -2% at $2,540, SOL -3% at $114, HYPE -4% at $86, and ZEC -8% at $1,210.

Top altcoin movers included JUP (+16%), ALGO (+15%), STRK (+21%), and RAY (+7%).

Oil rose 3% to $93 while gold was flat at $4,140. Stock futures were red as oil and bonds kept going higher: the Dow fell 0.9% and the Nasdaq 0.8%.

Policy and Regulation

Tom Lee said Bitmine will stop buying Ethereum once it holds 5% of supply, which is roughly 100,000 ETH away. ETH fell about 5% on the remarks, as Bitmine has bought every single week since June 2025.

House Financial Services Chair French Hill said the SEC and CFTC rules are not enough, even while crediting both agencies for acting. He argued that only a law provides lasting certainty and said he still hopes to pass the Clarity Act in the lame-duck session.

Government wallets moved $103 million in seized crypto on Tuesday, sending 833.6 Bitcoin to Coinbase Prime and 40,285 BNB to a fresh address. The Bitcoin traces to the Bitfinex hack and a separate fraud case.

Europol said crypto wallets are the main weak point for future quantum attacks in two reports published Wednesday. It concluded that crypto will not collapse but noted that wallets that have already revealed their public keys cannot be fixed later and must move funds before any attack. Published the same day as Drake's remarks, the reports arrive at the same conclusion from the law-enforcement side.

Corporate and Business News

Wells Fargo is in talks with Kraken's parent company to supply crypto trading liquidity, according to two people familiar with the matter. The bank would keep its own client relationships while Payward handles pricing and execution. The structure would let the bank offer crypto trading to its clients without building an execution desk of its own.

Polygon added Tron support to its payments stack, opening access to the $94 billion of USDT on that network. Businesses can now move Tether between Tron and Ethereum-style networks through a single integration.

Gate said an all-in-one money app is crypto's biggest consumer trend for this year and next, betting that users want spending, saving, and trading in a single place rather than separate apps.

Corporate Treasuries and ETFs

Bitcoin ETFs saw $485 million in net outflows on Wednesday, their biggest day of outflows since late June. Ethereum ETFs recorded $161 million in outflows.

Meme Coin Tracker

Meme leaders were red: DOGE -3%, SHIB -2%, PEPE -1%, PENGU -1%, TRUMP flat, SPX -6%, and BONK -1%.

Robinhood chain leaders continued their downtrend: Pons fell 5% to $260M, AI dropped 12% to $108M, and Cashcat slid 7% to $120M. Hookr rose 60% and ZZZ gained 27%, while Bucket's 60% gain led the top movers.

Solana's top movers included MET (+50%), Dark (+165%), Crawl (+40%), and Stupid Inu (+160%).

Token, Airdrop and Protocol Tracker

Hyperliquid led onchain protocols in revenue with $2.77M on the day, followed by Pumpfun at $2.57M and Stonk at $428k.

Hyperliquid's Jeff Yan said he would build an options product if he were starting over today. Speaking at DAS Asia 2026, he said he no longer thinks perpetuals will absorb options traders, and that HIP-4 gives builders a direct path, since it can use Hyperliquid's existing order book and margin system while perps hedge the risk.

Hyperliquid Labs unstaked 3.75 million HYPE, worth about $330 million, and sent half to five private buyers in its largest team distribution ever. The tokens are going to one undisclosed institution rather than being sold on exchanges.

Near Intents announced Confidential Intents on DarkSwap, allowing confidential swaps from Solana. DARK jumped 169% on the news.

NFTs

NFT leaders were mixed: Punks were flat at 33 ETH, BAYC rose 4% to 6.06 ETH, and Pudgy fell 8% to 2.88 ETH.

Claus (+120%) and Trace (+19%) led the top movers.