Researcher Claims 1 Bitcoin Bounty for Successful Quantum Attack on Cryptographic Technology

The perceived threat of quantum attacks to Bitcoin's underlying technology has become more tangible with the latest achievement by Giancarlo Lelli, who has been awarded a 1 bitcoin bounty by quantum security startup Project Eleven. Lelli successfully broke a 15-bit elliptic curve key on publicly accessible quantum hardware, a feat that is 512 times larger than the previous public demonstration in September 2025. This breakthrough has significant implications for the security of various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, which rely on elliptic curve cryptography to secure transactions. The bounty, worth approximately $78,000, highlights the growing concern about the potential risks posed by quantum computers to the cryptographic systems that underpin these digital currencies. While Lelli's achievement does not pose an immediate threat to Bitcoin, which uses 256-bit elliptic curve security, it underscores the need for the development of quantum-resistant cryptographic solutions. The previous public demonstration of a quantum attack on elliptic curve cryptography was a 6-bit key, which was broken by Steve Tippeconnic in September 2025 using IBM's 133-qubit quantum computer. Lelli's result marks a significant increase in the scale of quantum attacks on cryptographic systems, and the fact that it was achieved using cloud-accessible hardware raises concerns about the potential for more widespread attacks in the future. Theoretical estimates suggest that the resource requirements for a full 256-bit attack are decreasing rapidly, with some estimates putting the cost below 500,000 physical qubits. This has significant implications for the security of cryptocurrencies, particularly for wallets whose public keys are already visible on-chain. Project Eleven estimates that approximately 6.9 million Bitcoin are stored in such addresses, which could be vulnerable to quantum attacks if a powerful enough quantum computer were to be developed. In response to these concerns, Bitcoin developers have proposed migration paths, including the implementation of quantum-safe address types, while other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum and Ripple, have also published post-quantum transition plans.