CryptoSlate
About 6.04 million Bitcoin — 30.2% of the asset's circulating supply — sit in wallets whose public keys are already visible on-chain, according to Glassnode's quantum-safety framework. The metric isolates wallets that would matter most in a future quantum-attack scenario, where a sufficiently powerful machine could derive a private key from a published public key. Quantum computers remain years away from that capability, but the data shows exactly where the network's vulnerability is concentrated.
The risk splits into structural and operational buckets. The larger of the two is operational: 4.12 million Bitcoin tied to poor wallet management — address reuse, partial spending without rotating change outputs, and legacy deposit addresses still in service. Exchanges account for 1.66 million of those exposed coins, more than 8% of total supply. The share of exchange-held Bitcoin considered operationally safe has slid from roughly 55% in 2018 to about 45% today, suggesting custody standards are drifting the wrong way as platforms scale wallet and liquidity infrastructure.
Why it matters
Exposure is wildly uneven across the industry. Binance holds 85% of its labeled Bitcoin in addresses with revealed public keys, placing more than $34 billion of the platform's $40 billion-plus in user Bitcoin into the exposed bucket by Glassnode's count. Bitfinex, Crypto.com and Gemini sit at 100% exposure on their labeled balances. Coinbase is the outlier on the other side, with just 5% of its reserves flagged.
The split extends to traditional finance. Fidelity's spot BTC ETF issuer wallets track near 2% exposure; Grayscale sits around 50%, WisdomTree at 100%, and Robinhood and Revolut near 100% on their labeled wallets. Wallets tied to the US, UK and El Salvador governments have maintained zero quantum exposure for years, with safety rates above 99% — the strictest cryptographic hygiene of any group in the dataset.
Market impact
The data reframes the quantum threat as a custody problem before it becomes a protocol one.
Frequently asked questions
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What does Glassnode mean by quantum exposure?
Glassnode classifies a Bitcoin wallet as quantum-exposed once its public key has been published on-chain — typically after a spending transaction. A future quantum computer powerful enough to derive private keys from public keys would target these addresses first.
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How much Bitcoin is currently in exposed wallets?
About 6.04 million Bitcoin, or 30.2% of circulating supply, sit in wallets with exposed public keys, according to Glassnode. Of that, 4.12 million is classified as operational risk from poor wallet hygiene, with exchanges holding 1.66 million of the exposed coins.
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Which exchanges have the highest and lowest quantum exposure?
Bitfinex, Crypto.com and Gemini each sit at 100% exposure on their labeled Bitcoin balances, while Binance is at 85% — putting more than $34B of its $40B+ in user BTC in the exposed bucket. Coinbase is the standout on the low end with just 5% of its reserves flagged.
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How do TradFi and government wallets compare?
Fidelity's spot BTC ETF issuer wallets track near 2% exposure, while Grayscale sits around 50% and WisdomTree, Robinhood and Revolut are near 100% on labeled wallets. Wallets tied to the US, UK and El Salvador governments have maintained zero quantum exposure with safety rates above 99% for years.
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Can exchanges fix this before quantum computers arrive?
Most of the exposure is operational and addressable without a protocol change. Rotating balances to fresh addresses, retiring used wallets, and tightening change-output controls can shrink the exposed pool immediately, ahead of any multi-year migration to post-quantum signatures.
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