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Nobel-winning physicist warns bitcoin could be early target of quantum computing

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Nobel-winning physicist warns bitcoin could be early target of quantum computing

A Nobel Prize–winning physicist who helped build Google’s quantum computers warned that Bitcoin may be among the earliest real-world targets of the technology.

In an interview with CoinDesk, John M. Martinis said recent Google research showing how a quantum computer could break bitcoin encryption in minutes should be taken seriously.

“I think it’s a very well-written paper. It lays out where we are right now,” Martinis said, referring to Google’s latest work on quantum threats to cryptography. “It’s not something that has zero probability; people have to deal with this.”

READ: A simple explainer on what quantum computing actually is, and why it is terrifying for bitcoin

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The Google paper outlines how a sufficiently advanced quantum computer could derive a bitcoin private key from its public key, potentially within minutes, dramatically reducing the computational barrier that currently secures the network, Martinis highlighted, adding this is one of the issues that must be taken most seriously..

READ: Here’s what ‘cracking’ bitcoin in 9 minutes by quantum computers actually means

While the idea of quantum computers breaking encryption is often framed as distant or theoretical, Martinis said one of the first practical applications may be far more immediate.

Lowest hanging fruit for quantum computers

“It turns out that breaking cryptography is one of the easier applications for quantum computing, because it’s very numeric,” he said. “These are the smaller, easier algorithms. The low-hanging fruit.”

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That places bitcoin, which relies on elliptic curve cryptography, directly in the line of fire, Martinis suggested, confirming what the Google paper warns.

Unlike traditional financial systems, which can migrate to quantum-resistant encryption standards, bitcoin faces a more complex challenge. Its decentralized structure and historical design make upgrades slower and more contentious, the Nobel Prize winner said.

“You can go to quantum-resistant codes” in banking and other systems, Martinis said. “Bitcoin is a little bit different, which is why people should be thinking about this right now.”

The concern centers on a specific vulnerability window. When a bitcoin transaction is broadcast, its public key becomes visible before it is confirmed onchain, Martinis explained. A powerful quantum computer could, in theory, use that window to derive the corresponding private key and redirect funds before final settlement, he noted.

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However, Martinis cautioned against assuming the threat is imminent. Building a quantum computer capable of executing such an attack remains one of the hardest engineering challenges in modern science.

“I think it’s going to be harder to build a quantum computer than people are thinking,” he said, pointing to major hurdles in scaling, reliability and error correction.

No reason for inaction

Estimates for when cryptographically relevant quantum machines could emerge vary widely. Martinis suggested a rough five- to ten-year window, but warned that uncertainty is not a reason for inaction.

“Given the serious consequences, you deal with it. You have time, but you have to work on it,” he said.

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The warning highlights a growing shift inside the quantum research community, where scientists are increasingly flagging risks to existing cryptographic systems while withholding sensitive technical details — a strategy borrowed from traditional cybersecurity disclosure practices.

For bitcoin developers and investors alike, the message is becoming harder to ignore.

“The crypto community has to plan for this,” Martinis said. “It’s a serious issue that has to be dealt with.”

Martinis is a 2025 Nobel Prize–winning physicist recognized for his work on macroscopic quantum phenomena and is widely known for leading Google’s quantum hardware program, including the 2019 “quantum supremacy” experiment. He is currently CTO and co-founder of Qolab, a hardware company developing utility-scale superconducting quantum computers.

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BTC USD In Shock Again: Trump Says Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight

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BTC USD pulled back sharply to $68,000 Tuesday after topping $70,000 less than 24 hours earlier, as the Trump 8 PM deadline looming. The catalyst is as geopolitical as it gets, and the window to act may already be closing.

President Trump posted an extraordinary message to Truth Social Tuesday morning, warning:

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”

The statement, tied to his 8 PM ET deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, detonated across risk assets instantly. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 0.65%. WTI crude spiked 1.7% to $114.22 per barrel. Bitcoin shed nearly $2,000 in a matter of hours.

Vice President Vance offered a partial reprieve, stating military objectives in the Iran conflict had been completed, tempering the worst of the selloff. The broader damage, though, was already done. Markets are pricing in genuine overnight risk, and Bitcoin is caught directly in the crossfire.

Discover: The best pre-launch token sales

BTC USD Under Heavy Pressure from Trump Decisions

BTC USD rejection at $70,000 is technically significant. That level has served as stiff overhead resistance across multiple sessions, and Monday’s brief breach now looks like a false breakout rather than a confirmed range expansion. Price is currently consolidating around $68,000, dropping close to 3% since last night.

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The immediate support zone sits between $67,500 and $66,000. A clean hold here keeps the bullish structure intact. Lose it on a closing basis, and the next meaningful demand cluster doesn’t appear until the $65,000–$65,500 region, a level that aligns with prior consolidation from late March.

BTC USD pulled back sharply to $68,000 Tuesday after topping $70,000 less than 24 hours earlier, with the Trump 8 PM deadline looming.
BTC USD, TradingView

Volume context matters here. The pullback has been driven by macro fear rather than structural selling, which suggests the move could reverse quickly if tonight’s geopolitical outcome is less catastrophic than Trump’s language implies. Three scenarios dominate the tape right now:

Bitcoin’s correlation with risk assets during geopolitical shocks remains frustratingly tight; the “digital gold” narrative only seems to hold once the dust settles. Watch the 8 PM deadline closely and react to BTC USD movement.

Discover: The best crypto to diversify your portfolio with

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Bitcoin Hyper is Not Under Pressure

Here’s the uncomfortable truth for spot BTC holders: even in the bull case, Bitcoin’s upside from $68,000 to $74,000 represents roughly 9%, not nothing, but hardly the asymmetric return that first attracted most crypto investors to this space.

Macro-driven volatility compresses spot upside while amplifying downside risk. That calculus is pushing sophisticated allocators toward earlier-stage infrastructure plays with different return profiles.

Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) is currently raising in presale at just $0.0136, with $32 million already committed, a figure that signals serious demand for what the project is building.

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The pitch is technically ambitious: the first-ever Bitcoin Layer 2 with Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) integration, delivering sub-second transaction finality while preserving Bitcoin’s underlying security model. That means fast smart contracts, low fees, and a decentralized canonical bridge for BTC transfers, breaking the three core limitations that have historically capped Bitcoin’s utility as a programmable asset.

High 36% APY staking bonus is live for presale participants. Research Bitcoin Hyper’s presale terms here and joing Hyper army today.

The post BTC USD In Shock Again: Trump Says Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight appeared first on Cryptonews.

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XRP led crypto’s $224 million ETF inflow rebound last week

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XRP led crypto's $224 million ETF inflow rebound last week

Global crypto exchange-traded products drew $224 million in inflows last week after a $414 million outflow the week before, according to CoinShares.

The headline number looks like a recovery but a deeper look shows that the rebound is far narrower than it appears.

Switzerland alone accounted for roughly $157 million of the $224 million total, meaning 70% of global inflows came from a single country. Germany and the United States each contributed about $28 million. Canada added a much smaller $11 million.

The asset breakdown is similarly concentrated. XRP led all inflows at approximately $120 million, more than half the global total and its largest weekly intake since mid-December 2025.

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Virtually none of the total from U.S. spot XRP ETFs. SoSoValue data shows the five U.S.-listed XRP spot ETFs recorded near-zero daily flows throughout the past two weeks, with total net assets sitting at $940 million across Canary, Bitwise, Franklin, 21Shares, and Grayscale products. The $120 million was almost entirely European and international ETP demand.

Bitcoin ETPs drew $107 million, but only $22 million came from U.S. spot ETFs, which remain in negative territory year-to-date. Strategy disclosed over the weekend that it bought 4,871 BTC for approximately $330 million in the same week, meaning a single company spent 15 times what the entire U.S. spot bitcoin ETF complex attracted.

ETFs absorbed approximately 50,000 BTC in March’s rolling 30-day window, the highest since October 2025, CoinDesk reported last week. But nearly all of the sustained institutional buying pressure is coming through two channels — spot ETFs and Strategy — and even the ETF channel is weakening on a weekly basis.

The broader ETP market, which includes leveraged products, short products, and altcoin funds across dozens of countries, is not confirming the “institutions are buying” narrative.

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Ether products continued to bleed, posting $53 million in outflows after $222 million the prior week, bringing year-to-date outflows to $327 million. That stands in sharp contrast to Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), which bought 71,252 ETH last week in its largest single-week purchase since December 2025 and now holds 4.8 million tokens worth roughly $10 billion. ETH fund investors are leaving while the largest corporate ETH buyer on earth is accelerating.

CoinShares’ James Butterfill attributed the ether weakness partly to uncertainty around the CLARITY Act, the stablecoin legislation closely tied to Ethereum’s ecosystem.

The geographic concentration matters for reading where conviction actually sits. The Coinbase Premium Index, which tracks whether bitcoin trades at a premium or discount on the exchange most associated with US institutional flows, has been persistently negative since bitcoin’s all-time high above $126,000 in October 2025.

U.S. buyers are not stepping in at scale, and the ETP data confirms it. The $28 million in US inflows against $157 million from Switzerland suggests the marginal buyer right now is European, not American.

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Split Capital Founder Says Crypto Hedge Funds No Longer Work

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Split Capital Founder Says Crypto Hedge Funds No Longer Work

Split Capital, a digital asset hedge fund founded by investor Zaheer Ebtikar, is shutting down, with the founder joining Peter Thiel-backed stablecoin startup Plasma.

Ebtikar announced the news in an X post on Tuesday, saying Split Capital was profitable both in 2024 and 2025, and delivered over 100% in returns.

“We were a top performing fund by every mark,” Ebtikar claimed, adding that his decision to wind down the business was driven by a belief that the crypto market had shifted away from strategies that hedge funds are designed to capture.

“The hedge fund model did not make sense for crypto, in perpetuity,” he said.

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Ebtikar’s decision came amid continued pressure on crypto hedge funds, which have reportedly faced more challenging market conditions since the 2022 market downturn.

Crypto industry no longer rewards traders chasing momentum, Ebtikar argues

Ebtikar described his early years in crypto as “PvP button-clicking,” where traders competed in fast-moving markets driven by momentum and narratives. But after nearly a decade, he said those conditions have changed.

“The industry no longer rewards traders chasing momentum, it has matured into a space where the only real question is ‘What does the future look like and where is the value?’” he said.

Ebtikar said that many investors, including critics, were ultimately right to question whether funds such as Split Capital were sustainable in a rapidly evolving market.

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An excerpt from Zaheer Ebtikar’s announcement on joining Plasma and winding down Split Capital. Source: Zaheer Ebtikar

“As time went on, our conviction narrowed around a small number of founders and verticals I genuinely believed in,” Ebtikar said.

Betting on Plasma’s stablecoin vision

Ebtikar said his conviction in Plasma grew after working closely with its founding team throughout 2024 and 2025.

Plasma is focused on building infrastructure for stablecoin settlement and global financial access. The platform raised $24 million in February last year from investors such as Framework Ventures, Bitfinex, Peter Thiel and Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.

Related: Standard Chartered says faster stablecoin turnover could curb demand

As chief strategy officer at Plasma, Ebtikar will work across partnerships, growth and go-to-market efforts, as well as engage with investors and policymakers ahead of the rollout of Plasma One and ongoing ecosystem expansion.

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He framed the move as part of a larger belief that crypto is entering a new phase defined less by speculation and more by building global financial systems.

“The last dance of crypto’s old era and the hope and deep belief that our work at Plasma can get us to a new golden age for our space,” Ebtikar said.

Magazine: Your guide to surviving this mini-crypto winter