Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin has issued stark warnings about the vulnerability of cryptocurrency encryption to quantum computers and the growing dominance of institutions like BlackRock. These concerns come amid a sudden sell-off in bitcoin and ethereum prices, which have plunged below key psychological levels. Buterin emphasized the need for decentralization to counter these risks.
Bitcoin and ethereum prices have dropped sharply over the last month, with bitcoin falling under $100,000 per bitcoin and dragging other cryptocurrencies lower, as crash fears sweep the market. Analysts note that liquidity flood gates have opened, yet traders brace for a potential $1 trillion market crash.
At the Buenos Aires Devconnect conference, Vitalik Buterin, ethereum's cofounder, warned that elliptic curve cryptography—a foundational element of bitcoin, ethereum, and crypto encryption—could break before the 2028 U.S. presidential election. “Elliptic curves are going to die,” Buterin stated, according to reports from DL News.
Recent advances in quantum computing have heightened these fears. Google claimed a breakthrough this month, following Microsoft's unveiling of a new quantum-enabling chip in February. Quantum researcher Scott Aaronson wrote in a blog post: “Given the current staggering rate of hardware progress, I now think it’s a live possibility that we’ll have a fault-tolerant quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm before the next U.S. presidential election.”
Crypto investor Nic Carter posted on X that the threat gives him “an urgent sensation like I have to act on it now with as much intensity as I can muster.” Alex Pruden, CEO of Project 11, added on X: “We don’t need to panic, but we need to get serious,” noting that quantum computers at scale will “break crypto at the most fundamental level imaginable.”
Buterin also addressed institutional influence, particularly from BlackRock, whose bitcoin and ethereum ETFs launched in early 2024. When asked, “How do you avoid capture by big behemoths like BlackRock?” Buterin warned that expanding holdings could crowd out decentralization efforts, making it harder for regular users to run nodes and driving centralization. “It easily drives other people away,” he said. “We need to focus on the things that would otherwise be in short supply: global, permissionless, and censorship-resistant protocol."
This week, BlackRock registered a staked ethereum fund in Delaware, with its flagship ethereum ETF now holding $10 billion in ethereum. Meanwhile, bitcoin developers have been urged to prepare for a post-quantum world by 2030. Théau Peronnin, CEO of Alice & Bob, told Fortune at the Web Summit in Lisbon: “You should have a few good years ahead of you but I wouldn’t hold my bitcoin.” He added, “They need to fork by 2030, basically. Quantum computers will be ready to be a threat a bit later than that.”