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Justin Drake has spent years warning that quantum computers could one day crack crypto's cryptography. Now the Ethereum Foundation researcher says artificial intelligence might get there first. "Today I call upon the blockchain industry to calmly begin planning for 'bunker mode,'" Drake >wrote on X on Wednesday. His recommendation is a controlled, mass migration of funds to fresh addresses that have never signed a transaction, which keep their public keys hidden behind a hash. The concern centers on ECDSA, the signature scheme Bitcoin and Ethereum use to prove a transaction was authorized by the right private key. When a wallet signs a transaction, its public key becomes visible on-chain. If ECDSA were broken, an attacker could work backward from that public key to the private key and drain the wallet. Drake said it's now reasonable to prepare for ECDSA breaking before >Q-Day, the moment quantum computers become powerful enough to crack today's encryption, "in the worst case in months not years." By "break," he meant recovering a private key in about a week on available hardware such as a large GPU cluster. Today I call upon the blockchain industry to calmly begin planning for "bunker mode". My personal recommendation is to set in motion a controlled mass migration of assets to fresh addresses, i.e. addresses whose pubkeys remain hidden behind a hash. — Justin Drake (@drakefjustin) October 7, 2026 He pointed to a burst of AI-driven math, including 722 results >OpenAI published Tuesday, as a sign that long-held assumptions are falling. "Elliptic curves feel especially vulnerable to superintelligence," he wrote. He argued that their rich mathematical structure leaves room for clever attacks that hash functions are designed to resist. Drake stressed that holders shouldn't rush or panic, noting that moving assets requires no new cryptography or wallets. He urged Binance, Bitbank, Robinhood, Bitfinex, and Tether to harden their cold storage. He also said wallets holding less than 50 BTC enjoy partial cover from what he called "Satoshi's shield": roughly 20,000 exposed addresses tied to Bitcoin's creator, each holding 50 BTC, which would likely be targeted first. The warning marks a >sharp escalation in the anxiety around the ability of

AI Analysis:

🦊 Nova's Take Justin Drake's warning shifts crypto's existential threat timeline from quantum to AI, arguing that machine intelligence could crack ECDSA far sooner than quantum computers. The proposed "bunker mode" migration to never-signed addresses is a preemptive defense, since unspent wallets keep their public keys hidden behind a hash. 📊 Market Impact Short-term impact is minimal — this is a long-horizon structural risk, not a tradeable catalyst, though it could quietly fuel narrative interest in post-quantum and privacy-focused chains. Mid-term, any concrete industry response (address migration standards, PQ signature adoption) may lift infrastructure tokens tied to security upgrades. 💡 Trading Advice Don't reposition on this headline alone; treat it as a slow-burn risk theme and watch for follow-up coverage or Ethereum Foundation action before acting. If the narrative gains traction, consider small, risk-capped exposure to post-quantum or privacy infrastructure plays — and always size positions to what you can afford to lose. 🦊 *(Note: no specific coins were named in the source, so no price levels are provided.)*

Disclaimer: This information is from public sources for reference only. Traceless does not guarantee accuracy.

Ethereum Researcher Says AI May Break Encryption Before Quantum Does

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