The European Union's Financial Supervisory Authority has warned that quantum computers are posing a serious threat to blockchain encryption.

What's going on?

The European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) issued their Autumn 2026 Risk and Vulnerabilities Report on Wednesday, noting that high-level quantum computers "may be able to break some of the encryption systems widely used to secure transactional communications and blockchain data".

Interestingly, these agencies warn that "threats may become real sooner than this technology actually has a commercially viable application". This means the risks could arrive before we even see quantum computers in commercial use.

Why is this such a big problem with Bitcoin?

A common question in the bitcoin industry is how to deal with BTC on an old-fashioned wallet (legacy wallets ). How do you "change ice" or not change these coins?

The reason to take this seriously is because data from Cryptoquant indicates that if a quantum computer could one day crack the encryption of bitcoin, there would be bitcoins everywhere. $ 6.9 million At a total value of approximately 586,000 million US dollars (about 1.9 trillion baht) that fell into a vulnerable state, especially coins in old-style wallets using an address format which exposed public keys already on the blockchain.

How much longer?

The ESAs report itself does not set a time frame for when quantum computers will be commercially available, but the latest IBM report indicates that this technology will be implemented within Four years or less Which is much shorter than many people had expected.

How do you engage with investors and users in the region?

Although bitcoins traded on the Thai market through Bitkub or platforms licensed by the SEC (Thailand) are stored in a provider's custodial system, the risk of encryption is related to the underlying technology level of blockchains and not limited to any one country. Therefore, moves by global regulatory agencies such as ESAs are signals that users around the world, including those in Thailand and Myanmar, should keep an eye out for, indicating that a new (post-quantum) code entry standard ( cryptography ) may be pushed into place in the future digital currency industry.