In an op-ed published by Fortune on September 25, 2026, Chris Perkins, who leads crypto at asset manager Franklin Templeton, argues that quantum computing will not destroy cryptocurrency—and that the scramble to prepare for quantum attacks could instead accelerate Wall Street's adoption of blockchain technology.

For many in the crypto industry, the specter of quantum computing has become the stuff of existential dread. Popular doomer narratives cast public blockchains such as Bitcoin as among the first targets of quantum-based attacks that will wipe out trillions of dollars. In that telling, decentralization—the most salient feature of public blockchains—is an Achilles' heel that would impede defensive upgrades against quantum-powered hackers. Doomers argue that networks including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana will be helpless against a threat that will one day smash the public-key cryptography that has long kept them secure.

Perkins writes that the story makes for drama but rests on a misguided premise: while the threat is real, the conclusion—that quantum will kill crypto—is, in his view, simply wrong.

A threat that extends far beyond crypto

Blockchains are not alone in facing quantum risk, Perkins notes. Much of the internet as we know it is vulnerable to “Q-day”—the moment when quantum machines finally muster the capacity to pick the locks of the world's existing encryption defenses: the same public-key cryptography that secures online banking, payment networks, government communications, and encrypted messaging. Hundreds of trillions of dollars of the world's assets are exposed, along with the most sensitive private data. Bad actors have already initiated “harvest now, decrypt later” schemes designed to strike hard and fast once Q-day arrives, and alarmed governments have responded by mandating preparedness action plans. In 2024, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology finalized its first post-quantum cryptography standards, giving institutions reference algorithms for the migration ahead.

Yet amid the scramble to shore up digital bulwarks, Perkins observes, the industry that seems to have experienced a particular sense of foreboding over quantum advancements also happens to be the most capable of meeting the challenge: crypto itself. Because of a long-held open-source ethos, public blockchains and their associated infrastructure have long faced attacks by malicious actors. Builders of these networks have learned to become survivors, constantly patching vulnerabilities and both anticipating and responding to myriad threats. Compared with other industries, Perkins argues, the crypto industry's response to new cyberthreats has been lightning fast, and many teams have already sprung into action building defenses ahead of Q-day's arrival.

Legacy finance's slow upgrade record

By contrast, Perkins contends, legacy financial systems appear prone to rolling out insufficient responses to pressing challenges. In 2018, for example, the SWIFT network began a major initiative to modernize its 1970s-era global banking-transfer messaging technology. The time it took to complete the undertaking? Seven years.

Perkins concedes that SWIFT is a sprawling network of 11,000 institutions that had to coordinate efforts across 200 countries. But the upgrade it undertook—modernizing a messaging format—was simple in comparison to the broader task at hand: swapping out the guts of decades-established layers that touch certificates, hardware, software, vendors, and counterparties across the financial system.

The pattern extends well beyond SWIFT. Perkins points to a long history of significantly delayed overhauls across a wide variety of key pieces of core financial infrastructure—delays that, he argues, bode ill for timely upgrades to meet the quantum challenge. A planned revamp of the Federal Reserve's high-value wire system began in 2015, but only crossed the finish line in July 2025. In 2016, the Bank of England began planning an overhaul of its central ledger for handling interbank settlements; although a target completion date of 2021 was set, the work did not actually happen until 2025, and aspects of the upgrade are still ongoing.

Even as organizations such as SWIFT announce ambitious efforts to tackle the quantum threat, history suggests tempering expectations that the sprawling surface area of legacy financial services, governments, and other industries will be ready when Q-day arrives. According to the U.S. government, some of the most critical digital infrastructure must be quantum secure by 2030, as set out in a June 2026 presidential action—a four-year timeline that is half of what it took SWIFT to complete a far less ambitious upgrade.

Crypto's quantum offensive

Against that backdrop, Perkins finds it heartening that workable solutions are emerging from the cryptoverse's many world-class cryptographers, many of whom have already gone on the quantum offensive. Leading blockchain organizations have published comprehensive plans for achieving post-quantum readiness well before 2030—among them the Stellar Development Foundation's Quantum Preparedness Plan. Even Ethereum, known for prioritizing decentralization over speed, has moved without hesitation, laying out 2029 in the network's roadmap as the point at which it will be quantum ready. Those milestones, together with the U.S. government's 2030 deadline, give observers concrete dates to watch. It remains to be seen whether Bitcoin and Solana, the other networks named in the doomer narratives Perkins disputes, will publish comparable roadmaps of their own.

The industry has also spawned a wave of new startups building a wide variety of novel post-quantum “picks and shovels,” ranging from wallets to payment infrastructure. Resources and talent, Perkins writes, are being marshaled in a profound way, and it increasingly looks as though the crypto industry might have just leapfrogged traditional players in the broader pursuit of quantum readiness.

An optimistic counterpoint

Perkins adds that growing legions of finance professionals see great promise in blockchain networks and tokenization. As they confront the enormous task of upgrading their outdated legacy financial infrastructure, he suggests, many will find it easier to simply switch over to using quantum-hardened blockchains. Franklin Templeton, for its part, has operated tokenized funds on public blockchains, including Stellar, since 2022.

Ahead of Q-day—whenever it actually arrives—Perkins writes that he is filled with the opposite of existential dread. He is optimistic that blockchain technology, so often portrayed as quantum computing's first casualty, could instead become one of the foundations on which the financial system rebuilds.

Chris Perkins, a former fund manager and combat veteran, leads crypto at Franklin Templeton. This article is based on an op-ed originally featured on [Fortune.comhttps://fortune.com/2026/09/25/chris-perkins-op-ed/).