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Michael Saylor Weighs In on Quantum Threat to Bitcoin

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Michael Saylor Weighs In on Quantum Threat to Bitcoin

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) co-founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor said he does not believe quantum computing represents Bitcoin’s (BTC) greatest security threat at the moment.

This statement comes as the quantum computing narrative continues to be a focus of debate among crypto circles. Some argue that it has already started to impact Bitcoin’s valuation and institutional exposure.

Michael Saylor Dismisses Quantum Threat to Bitcoin

During an appearance on Natalie Brunell’s Coin Stories podcast, Saylor weighed in on growing concerns over quantum computing. He said the broader cybersecurity community generally agrees that any meaningful quantum-related risk remains at least a decade away. Saylor added that it’s not a “this decade thing.”

“Whether or not there will be a quantum threat or a quantum risk is a question that is yet to be decided. But there’s certainly no consensus that there is any threat right now or that there will be a threat materializing anytime soon,” he commented. “I don’t actually think that the quantum, you know, narrative is the greatest security threat to Bitcoin right now. I don’t think it has been.”

He emphasized that major breakthrough quantum capabilities would not catch the industry off guard. If a quantum threat materialized, global banking systems, internet infrastructure, consumer devices, artificial intelligence (AI) networks, and crypto protocols, including Bitcoin, would coordinate software upgrades to quantum-resistant cryptography. 

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Previously, Saylor has suggested that Bitcoin’s greatest threat comes from ambitious opportunists pushing for changes to the protocol.

“The software does change. If you’ve got 30 versions of Bitcoin core in an asset which is 17 years old, do the math in your head and figure out how long it takes for versions of this stuff to roll out. The nodes will upgrade, the hardware will upgrade, the wallets will upgrade, the exchanges will upgrade. How will they upgrade? Well, wait 10 years. There will be global consensus about the best way to deal with it. There is no global consensus right now because there isn’t a credible threat right now,” he added.

Saylor also downplayed fears of Bitcoin facing isolated vulnerability. He noted that major corporations, financial institutions, and governments worldwide rely on digital systems that would face similar exposure in the event of a credible quantum breakthrough.

Companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Coinbase, and BlackRock, alongside global governments and major banks, would all be confronting the same challenge.

“When and if it materializes, I expect that there will be some software or hardware or both reaction to it. The crypto community is actually the most sophisticated cybersecurity community,” he remarked. “So I think that the crypto security community will be the first, you know, to perceive the threat and to react to the threat, and they’ll be leading the way.”

From Wall Street to Core Devs: Crypto Braces for the Quantum Era

While the technical threat may be distant, institutional capital appears to be pricing in uncertainty. Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary recently stated that many institutions are capping their Bitcoin exposure due to concerns over quantum computing.

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Christopher Wood, Global Head of Equity Strategy at Jefferies, has removed Bitcoin from his model portfolio over similar fears. Meanwhile, analysts including Willy Woo and Charles Edwards argue that quantum-related uncertainty could be contributing to Bitcoin’s relative underperformance against gold and weighing on its price.

As the debate intensifies, defensive measures are accelerating across the industry. Ethereum has incorporated post-quantum readiness into its planned 2026 protocol priorities update. Coinbase and Optimism are also actively planning post-quantum security enhancements.

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On the Bitcoin side, developers have merged Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 360 (BIP 360) into the official BIP GitHub repository.

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Crypto World

Coinbase’s USDC Revenue Could Grow Seven Fold: Bloomberg

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Coinbase’s USDC Revenue Could Grow Seven Fold: Bloomberg

Bloomberg Intelligence estimates that Coinbase’s stablecoin revenue, which is largely tied to its USDC revenue share with Circle and already about 19% of total revenue in 2025, could grow by two to seven times if USDC adoption in payments accelerates.

Despite reporting a net loss of $667 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to Coinbase’s Q4 2025 shareholder letter, the company netted around $1.35 billion in stablecoin revenue last year. 

That figure was up from $911 million in 2024, with $364 million in stablecoin revenue in Q4 2025 alone, as interest income on USDC (USDC) balances became a high-margin line for the exchange compared to volatile trading fees.

Stablecoins themselves have gone mainstream in usage terms. The total stablecoin transaction volume hit a record $33 trillion in 2025, with USDC accounting for about $18.3 trillion of that, ahead of Tether’s USDt (USDT) by transaction value, even though Tether still leads on market cap.

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Coinbase revenue 2025. Source: SEC 8-K filing

Politics of stablecoin yield

That growth is exactly why the politics around stablecoin yield have become so fraught. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, signed by US President Donald Trump in July 2025, created a federal regime for payment stablecoins and explicitly bars issuers from paying interest or yield to holders.

Related: Who gets the yield? CLARITY Act becomes fight over onchain dollars

That provision is backed by the banking lobby because yield‑bearing stablecoins could siphon deposits from the traditional system. 

Banks and their allies now want to go further in the Senate’s Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act of 2025 negotiations by closing what they see as a loophole that still allows non‑issuer affiliates, such as exchanges like Coinbase, to pass some of the interest on reserves back to customers as “rewards.”

Draft Senate language of the market structure bill could extend the yield ban and prevent Coinbase from offering any rewards tied to stablecoin balances. 

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In January, Coinbase withdrew support for the bill after objecting to provisions that would restrict its ability to offer stablecoin rewards to customers.

Coinbase earns a share of interest income from USDC reserves through its partnership with Circle, and the companies split that revenue based on USDC distribution.

Ironically, Armstrong told investors that if Congress bans rewards, the company would simply keep more of the Circle revenue share, making the stablecoin line more profitable, despite users losing out on yield.

Cointelegraph reached out to Coinbase but had not received a response by publication time.

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What’s next for CLARITY?

The CLARITY Act, which bundles a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) split with tougher language on third‑party stablecoin yield, is currently working its way through the Senate.

Senator Bernie Moreno has said he expected the CLARITY Act to clear Congress as soon as April.

With stablecoins already accounting for nearly a fifth of Coinbase’s revenue and onchain dollar volumes hitting record highs, the eventual shape of those yield rules may matter more for Coinbase’s business model than the next crypto price cycle.

Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum — BIP-360 co-author

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