The government has directed banks to develop a sector-wide quantum transition and adoption strategy, along with an artificial intelligence (AI) resilience framework. This directive follows the identification of the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector as critical information infrastructure, according to people familiar with the matter. "Banks are internally discussing the matter, and a working group under the State Bank of India chairman is looking into it," an executive said on condition of anonymity. The working group is also considering frontier AI models and associated risks, including development of a sectoral framework on AI-driven cyber threats. "Each bank can prepare its internal strategy, but there has to be some common industry parameters," a finance ministry official noted, emphasizing coordinated sector-wide approach.
Glassnode analytics firm reports that 6.04 million BTC are already exposed, representing 30.2% of all coins issued at Bitcoin's current price near $83,050, worth approximately $502 billion. Most exposure comes from reused addresses and exchange wallets, with the remainder sitting in older script formats including Satoshi Nakamoto's early coins. The vulnerability depends on how coins are stored - most standard Bitcoin addresses show only a scrambled fingerprint of the public key, keeping the key itself hidden, but transaction history reveals the key and any coins left behind lose their cover. Quantum-safe signatures are 10 to 120 times larger than today's, which could clog blocks and raise fees significantly. Major concerns in the banking sector include 'harvest now, decrypt later' threats, where cyber adversaries stockpile encrypted banking data for future quantum decryption, according to industry sources.
The quantum migration presents substantial technical challenges beyond cryptography upgrades. One study cited by Europol estimates a full migration would need at least 76 days of the network's entire capacity, with spreading it across a quarter of each block stretching to about 300 days. Migration itself could prove difficult because decentralized networks require coordination among developers, wallet companies, exchanges, custodians, miners or validators and individual asset holders. Galaxy Digital has committed $5 million to fund Bitcoin research covering quantum-resistant signatures, migration tools and security audits. Europol's recommendation calls for cryptocurrency projects to identify exposed assets first, improve wallet and key-management practices, test post-quantum alternatives and communicate future migration requirements clearly to users. The agency set no date for quantum machines but argues that upgrades on a network with no central operator take years, with some developers already backing plans to freeze vulnerable coins.
The US National Security Agency announced a major shift toward post-quantum cryptography with specific implementation timelines. As reported by BeInCrypto, from 2027, new commercial national-security systems must support quantum-resistant algorithms. Incompatible systems will be phased out by 2030. The NSA has coined this approach as 'harvest now, decrypt later', where attackers can steal encrypted data today and wait for future quantum machines to crack it. NIST approved FIPS 203, FIPS 204 and FIPS 205 in August 2024, covering quantum-resistant key establishment and digital signatures. FIPS 203 specifies ML-KEM for shared secrets, FIPS 204 specifies ML-DSA for digital signatures, and FIPS 205 uses hash-based SLH-DSA signature system. NIST plans to deprecate and eventually remove quantum-vulnerable algorithms from NIST standards by 2035, while higher-risk systems are expected to move earlier.
Some crypto custodians and blockchain developers have started testing post-quantum systems before a practical threat exists. BitGo and Silence Laboratories tested post-quantum multiparty computation signing earlier this year, using ML-DSA inside institutional custody workflow to test quantum-resistant signatures. BitGo later introduced four controls for supported institutional Bitcoin wallets, including tools for measuring public-key exposure, consolidating outputs and helping users move funds from addresses considered more exposed under future quantum scenarios. Coinbase is working on similar custody problems, designing infrastructure capable of supporting different post-quantum signature schemes since Bitcoin developers have not yet selected a final replacement standard. Sui plans optional quantum-safe authentication based on NIST-approved signature schemes, with native post-quantum accounts targeted for mainnet in 2027. Monad researchers have proposed separating blockchain addresses from their authentication keys, allowing keys to change without requiring users to abandon the same account address.
