Vitalik Buterin of Ethereum commented on the transition to 'bunker mode' amid questions about whether AI could crack crypto encryption.

Vitalik Buterin to AI could weaken lattice encryption within two years.

The co-founder of Ethereum stated that there was a possibility that advances in AI's mathematics would impact encryption, especially the lattice type cryptography , within two years. He argued that industry should reduce its reliance on vulnerable systems from both AI and quantum computing rather than being prepared for quantum disasters alone.

AI could be a threat closer to quantum.

This warning comes one day after Justin Drake, a researcher at Ethereum Foundation said that AI-accelerated math could break the encryption before quantum computers power up to what's called Q-Day.

Drake called for a bunker-mode plan, transferring money to wallet addresses where the public key had not been disclosed in order to reduce risk if encryption was broken.

Buterin sees the direction in perspective, but doesn't recommend panic. Transfer money immediately. He says to use caution with encryption that could compromise AI as well.

Lattice and Cardano .

Lattice-based cryptography is considered one of the alternatives to quantum-proof blockchain . Some projects, such as Cardano , consider using it for protecting networks.

Buterin warned that if users hastily transferred money to a lattice-based wallet in order to escape the long-term quantum threat, they might open up an AI short-term threat instead.

In a post on X dated October 7th, 2026, he said it was possible that the security of the lattices would be severely affected by the advancement of AI areas of mathematics in two years.

Another expert point of view.

Isabel Foxen Duke, head of the Mara Foundation's Bitcoin quantum proofing project told Decrypt that in general disruption by a quantum computer is often thought to be limited to an elliptic curve and RSA.

But a classical attack, which AI might be able to create, could potentially disrupt quantum-secure systems like the lattice-based cryptography .

When you add classical risk, it becomes more conservative.

Ananda Banerjee, founder of analytics firm Charlie Quant Lab told Decrypt that Vitalik's two-year time frame should not be seen as a deadline because the post did not prove the system was broken.

The option that Buterin recommended.

Buterin felt that all lattice designs should be scaled up significantly for greater security.

At the same time, he saw hash-based cryptography as a better path to quantum proofing, but he acknowledged that in theory AI-driven math could break the hash too.

The measures he cited were not unnecessarily harsh, and he recommended keeping money in a non-transactional wallet address because the public key wouldn't be exposed, which significantly reduces the chance of being hacked.

A change of direction from a month ago.

Buterin had previously expressed the view that AI would not doom crypto security and saw that defense security would catch up

The latest warnings may reflect that the industry is focused on quantum threats only, and should examine whether it's unwittingly choosing to encrypt at risk for AI.

Initially, there was also Myriad's Ethereum and the Daily Debrief Newsletter but its main focus is on short-term and long-term risks to cryptographic assumptions.