Bitcoin Celebrates 18 Years as Quantum Threat Grows
The coin is now worth $1.55 trillion, but researchers and regulators are increasingly looking at quantum computing and other technical risks to Bitcoin’s cryptography.
Key Takeaways
- Bitcoin turns 18 today and is trading around $77,330, with a market value of about $1.55 trillion.
- Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity remains unknown, while about 1.1 million BTC are attributed to him and have never been moved.
- The debate is shifting toward AI and quantum risks, as regulators warn about possible pressure on blockchain encryption.
Bitcoin turns 18 today. The coin is trading around $77,330 (€69,200) and has a market value of about $1.55 trillion (€1.4 trillion). At the same time, the identity of founder Satoshi Nakamoto remains unknown. Meanwhile, attention is growing around how well Bitcoin can keep up with new technical risks, from AI to quantum computers.
Satoshi’s Legacy
On October 31, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper. It laid out the idea of money that can move without a bank or other middleman. Satoshi wrote at the time that he was working on a new electronic cash system that is fully peer-to-peer, without a trusted third party.
The core of the system was simple. Computers in the network verify transactions and make sure the same Bitcoin is not spent twice. Satoshi stopped posting publicly in 2010, but Bitcoin kept running after that.
The Shadow of 1.1 Million BTC
Researchers attribute about 1.1 million BTC to an early miner widely seen as Satoshi. Most of those coins have never been moved. At today’s price, that works out to an estimated value of about $85 billion (€76.1 billion).
No one knows who controls the private keys today. If those coins were suddenly moved, it could make the market nervous right away. A transfer would not prove that anything was sold immediately, but the uncertainty alone could still spook traders.
AI and Quantum Concerns
This month, developer T4T5 used Anthropic’s Claude to recreate preserved Bitcoin software from 2009. That version matched the original byte for byte, but the actual launch-day program is still missing. Separately, Claude traced mysterious numbers in encryption standards provided by the NSA back to a timestamp-based random generator. That removed old suspicions about hidden weaknesses, without showing a flaw in Bitcoin itself.
The broader debate now goes beyond AI alone. Recent progress in quantum computing has already sharply lowered the estimated computing power needed to break Bitcoin cryptography, and European regulators warn that these systems could undermine encryption of blockchains and other digital systems. The G7 Cybersecurity Working Group also urged organizations to gradually move to post-quantum cryptography during normal replacement cycles.
For Bitcoin, that matters especially because the coin has run for nearly two decades without a central boss. The question now is not just who Satoshi was, but also whether the community can put enough security measures in place in time if new threats become more concrete. Earlier this year, Casa CEO Jameson Lopp also warned that Bitcoin’s post-quantum upgrade is already behind schedule, while the threat from quantum computers is still growing, in his view.
