[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee] Crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital has started a response programme that will spend up to $5 million to prepare for the threat quantum computers could pose to Bitcoin.

On July 21 local time, blockchain outlet Bitcoin Magazine reported that Galaxy launched the "Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Initiative," which combines developer grants, research activities and the creation of an advisory board.

The programme's core is to bring forward preparations for upgrading the Bitcoin network. Galaxy said it will fund quantum-resistant transaction proposals, integration of post-quantum signature systems, migration tools for wallets and custodians, and formal security audits of proposed code. It plans to review grants case by case and pay them according to staged milestones.

Galaxy views the risk as a long-term technical challenge rather than a short-term crisis. Alex Thorn (알렉스 손), head of Galaxy Research, said, "The quantum computing camp is moving fast, while the Bitcoin development camp has only now begun to push forward post-quantum cryptography discussions."

Bitcoin's security is based on elliptic curve cryptography. If a sufficiently powerful quantum computer runs Shor's algorithm, it could derive a private key from a public key. That would allow an attacker to forge signatures and drain assets from wallets. Such equipment does not yet exist, but forecasts for when it could emerge are moving closer, which is the backdrop to this response.

The practical threat is more concentrated on old or reused addresses. That is because public keys are directly exposed on the ledger, and about 1,700,000 BTC is estimated to be stored in legacy public-key-based addresses.

The technical response direction has also been partly fleshed out. Options under market review include migration to quantum-resistant address formats and the introduction of new signature systems. BIP-360, proposed by developer Hunter Beast, includes a structure that removes public-key exposure from standard transactions. The proposal was merged into the Bitcoin improvement proposal repository this year, and BTQ Technologies deployed a working implementation on a quantum testnet.

Galaxy is running a separate research track. Galaxy Research plans to release analysis for investors, policymakers and the technical community on the level of threat and the status of developer responses. It will also create a quantum advisory board to set research direction and take part in grant reviews. Initial members include Barry Sanders (배리 샌더스), a University of Calgary professor and Quantum City chief scientific officer, Damien Berube (데이미언 베루베), an MIT C. Sigrand Knaus Fellow, and Eran Tromer (에란 트로머), a Boston University computer science professor.

Mike Novogratz (마이크 노보그라츠), Galaxy's founder and chief executive officer, said, "As a leader in the digital asset industry, it is my task to address, even in part, the potential threat quantum computing could pose to Bitcoin." Sanders also said, "The timeline for realizing quantum technology keeps moving forward," and said Bitcoin should not be an exception to the broader flow of preparation across government and industry.

Still, Bitcoin's decision-making structure could mean it takes time before any changes are applied. Network changes follow a slow process of design, review, testing and deployment. That structure can become a governance issue, and the pool of relevant developers is small relative to the scale of the problem.

In this situation, the policy environment is also moving. Galaxy Research views the risk as real, but says response tools are also advancing. U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to advance U.S. quantum technology development and set 2031 as the deadline for the federal government's transition to post-quantum defenses. The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology confirmed its first post-quantum standards in 2024.

Galaxy said other funders and stakeholders can also join the plan. It said other companies putting up separate funding for the same goal is help, not competition. As a result, Bitcoin's quantum-security response is moving beyond reviewing individual proposals into a stage in which developers and institutions jointly accelerate readiness.