- Giancarlo Lelli performed the largest known quantum attack on Bitcoin’s encryption model. - His feat is a 512-fold jump from the previous record. - Bitcoin enthusiasts are scrambling for ideas to deal with the quantum computing threat. Bitcoin’s timeline to deal with quantum computers just got a little bit shorter. A researcher called Giancarlo Lelli performed the largest known quantum attack on elliptic curve cryptography, the standard that secures Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a vast majority of the $2.6 trillion crypto market. Lelli’s breakthrough is a 512-fold jump from the previous record. Even though the result doesn’t break Bitcoin, it suggests something pretty unsettling. Progress towards breaking the $1.5 trillion network is accelerating on hardware that anyone can rent. “The winning submission came from an independent researcher working on cloud-accessible hardware,” said Andy Pruden, CEO of Project Eleven, a startup dedicated to addressing Bitcoin’s quantum computing threat. “The resource requirements for this type of attack keep dropping, and the barrier to running it in practice is dropping with them.” What was considered a far-fetched threat not too long ago has now taken centre stage. In January, Wall Street behemoths like BlackRock and $5 trillion UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti denounced the quantum threat, while developers turned a blind eye. Not anymore. After Google accelerated its timeline for quantum to 2029, Bitcoin maintainers have begun to think about ways to stave off the threat. Now there’s a proposal to freeze any quantum-exposed coins — including Satoshi Nakamoto’s purported 1.1 million stash. 6 bits to 15 bits Lelli’s record shatters its predecessor by seven months. In September 2025, Steve Tippeconnic broke a 6-bit cryptographic key on quantum hardware in what was considered the first public demonstration of its kind. By using a cloud-accessible quantum computer, Lelli broke a 15-bit key. Project Eleven awarded