Jim Cramer said he will liquidate his Bitcoin holdings, concerned about the threat of quantum computing to its security

Former hedge fund manager and CNBC host Jim Cramer stated that due to concerns about quantum computing threatening Bitcoin's security, he plans to sell all of his BTC holdings. His statement stems from an interview with IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna, who said that investors should be wary of the challenges quantum computing may pose to modern cryptography in the next 3 to 4 years. Cramer believes that quantum computing could threaten the Bitcoin network in a similar timeframe. However, no one has independently confirmed how much BTC he holds or whether he has completed the sale.

After his statement, Bitcoin continued to trade normally around $63,764, with some market participants viewing his comments as a "reverse Cramer" signal. Bitcoin uses the ECDSA signature mechanism based on the secp256k1 curve, and theoretically, a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could use Shor's algorithm to derive the private key from the public key. The risk is mainly concentrated on addresses with exposed public keys, including reused addresses, early wallet formats, and the brief time window after a transaction is broadcast but not yet confirmed. Researchers estimate that about 6 to 7 million BTC, accounting for approximately 30% of the supply, may fall into this category. Google Quantum AI estimated in March this year that breaking the relevant cryptographic mechanisms could require fewer than 500,000 physical qubits, reducing the previous estimate by about 20 times. However, current quantum systems typically only have hundreds to thousands of physical qubits, with even fewer logical qubits that have higher reliability. Most researchers expect that truly capable quantum computers for cryptographic breaking may not appear until the 2030s or even 2040s, making Cramer's 3-year prediction significantly earlier than most technological expectations.