ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood is one of the veteran investors whose views on digital assets are taken very seriously by the crypto industry. In fact, she once revealed that ARK Invest was the first publicly listed asset manager to gain Bitcoin (BTC) exposure in 2015.
Bitcoin wasn't worth even $500 a coin back then but Wood was quick to recognize the potential of the tech asset.
It's not that her move didn't meet any criticism from the traditional industry but it didn't deter her from chasing crypto-linked assets and equities such as Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN), Robinhood Markets (Nasdaq: HOOD), and Block (NYSE: SQ).
ARK Invest expects Bitcoin to hit $1 million in 2030.
The legendary investor's firm recently teamed up with a financial services company Unchained and published a white paper titled "Bitcoin And Quantum Computing."
Why Bitcoiners fear quantum computing
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin use cryptography to encrypt financial details so that nobody other than those sending and receiving funds can gain access to any sensitive financial data.
It is understood that even the latest supercomputers will take thousands of years to decrypt crypto proofs. But quantum computers could be so powerful that they could pose a major risk to cryptocurrencies in the near future.
Leading industry figures like Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko fear the threat to crypto is imminent.
Here is what ARK Invest and Unchained have to say about the threat to Bitcoin from quantum computing.
Popular on TheStreet Roundtable:
No sudden 'Q-Day' event
The quantum computers currently in operation are not powerful enough to crack Bitcoin's cryptography. Modern systems operate in the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) computing era with around 100 logical qubits and shallow circuits, the paper said.
In contrast, it would require close to 2,330 logical qubits and billions of quantum operations to crack Bitcoin's cryptography, it added.
Bitcoin security relies mainly on:
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Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC)
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SHA-256 hashing
Quantum computers could theoretically derive a private key from a public key and steal Bitcoin from addresses with exposed public keys, but addresses with private public keys will remain safe, the paper underlined.
There won't be a sudden "Q-Day" event; instead, the progress on quantum computing will happen over an extended period of time with many intermediate warning signals, and Bitcoin will have time to adapt to rise to the challenge, the paper argued.
"An abrupt single point of failure is unlikely."
Related: Ethereum scientist warns 20% chance quantum computers could break crypto
5 stages of quantum computing
The paper outlines five stages of the development of quantum computing and its potential threat to Bitcoin:
Stage 0 (Current era): Quantum computers exist but have no real commercial utility. There is no threat to Bitcoin.
Stage 1:Quantum computers become commercially useful for certain applications but they have no cryptographic applications.
Stage 2: Quantum computing becomes powerful enough to encrypt weak cryptographic systems.
Stage 3: Quantum computers could crack Bitcoin's elliptic curve cryptography but it will take a long time. But it's a real threat.
Stage 4: Elliptic curve keys can be broken more quickly than Bitcoin's 10-minute block time. It requires protocol-level upgrades to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) for Bitcoin to resist the threat.
Bitcoin developers have years to prepare
Bitcoin could integrate PQC via these means:
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Quantum-resistant signature schemes
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New wallet address formats
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Protocol upgrades
As the quantum threat will develop gradually, Bitcoin developers have years, if not decades, to adapt. In fact, research into quantum-resistant cryptography is happening at a pace fast enough that it can contain the risks to Bitcoin from quantum computing, the paper reassured.
A secure Bitcoin means billions of dollars won't be lost; so, developers, miners, exchanges, and holders all have incentives to upgrade the protocol, the paper argued.
The paper outlines three potential paths:
One, a sudden quantum breakthrough catches Bitcoin off guard.
Two, quantum computing progresses slowly and Bitcoin upgrades before serious risk can emerge. This is the most likely scenario.
Three, quantum computing stalls due to technical barriers.
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Paper estimates 6.9 million Bitcoin under quantum threat
The paper estimates that around 13 million Bitcoin (65.4% of total supply)is not vulnerable to threats from quantum computing. But 6.9 million Bitcoin (34.6% of total supply)could be vulnerable to such threats.
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5 million BTC: Assumed migratable due to address reuse
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1.7 million BTC: Assumed lost in Pay To Public Key (P2PK) addresses
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200,000 BTC: Assumed migratable due to the address type (Pay To Taproot) P2TR
Quantum computing theoretically threatens Bitcoin but the scenario is still years away, and the Bitcoin network has ample time to upgrade to a quantum-resistant protocol, the paper concluded.
Related: White House reveals 6 pillars of cybersecurity amid rising threats
This story was originally published by TheStreet on Mar 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the Technology News section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
