Researcher Claims 1 Bitcoin Bounty for Record-Breaking Quantum Attack

The threat of quantum attacks on bitcoin's underlying technology has become more tangible with the latest achievement by Giancarlo Lelli, who was awarded a 1 bitcoin bounty by quantum security startup Project Eleven. Lelli's feat involved breaking a 15-bit elliptic curve key on publicly accessible quantum hardware, a significant milestone that marks a 512-fold increase from the previous public demonstration in September 2025. The bounty, worth approximately $78,000, underscores the growing concern over the potential vulnerability of bitcoin and other major blockchains to quantum attacks. Elliptic curve cryptography, which enables crypto wallets to prove fund control without revealing private keys, is being challenged by quantum computers utilizing Shor's algorithm. Although Lelli's breakthrough does not immediately jeopardize bitcoin, which uses 256-bit elliptic curve security, it highlights the rapid progress being made in quantum computing. The previous public break was a 6-bit demonstration, and Lelli's achievement has expanded this by a factor of 512 in just seven months. Theoretical estimates suggest that the resource requirements for a full 256-bit attack are decreasing rapidly, with a recent Google Research paper estimating the cost to be below 500,000 physical qubits. This has significant implications for wallets with publicly visible keys, with approximately 6.9 million bitcoin, or one-third of the total supply, potentially at risk. In response, bitcoin developers have proposed migration paths, including the introduction of quantum-safe address types, while other blockchain platforms such as Ethereum, Tron, StarkWare, and Ripple have also published post-quantum transition plans.