Overview
- Europol published two reports on Wednesday urging immediate preparation for quantum risks to cryptocurrencies and long-lived encrypted data and said wallets are the main point of exposure.
- The agency recommends a phased migration to post-quantum signature schemes, stronger wallet key management, and a European Commission-led working group to coordinate industry and regulators.
- Europol warned that any public key already visible on-chain cannot be retroactively secured and therefore requires pre-emptive migration to new wallet addresses or formats.
- The reports say blockchain hash functions that secure block linkage and mining remain largely resistant to quantum attacks while NIST-standardized post-quantum signatures are much larger and could overload block space, creating months of migration work and higher fees.
- Analysts estimate roughly 6–7 million BTC have had public keys exposed, making migration a massive coordination problem and meaning many holders, custodians, exchanges and developers must act now to avoid future irreversible losses.