Billionaire financier Tim Draper believes the traditional banking system faces a more direct threat from quantum computing than does bitcoin. This data has sparked a debate about which financial institutions are most at risk as technology continues its rapid advance into the mainstream.
Draper wrote in the X post that he feels his investments in cryptocurrencies are safer than dollars stored in bank accounts. The financier’s opinion is supported by the fact that the banking infrastructure lacks the necessary safety measures that would allow to return to the last uncompromised block in the event of a blockchain hack.
These statements come at a time when leading technology companies are pushing back timelines for implementing post-quantum cryptography. According to Moody’s, Google announced in March 2026 that the company would move the implementation timeline to 2029. Cloudflare made the same announcement in April, while the 2035 deadline announced by the US government to federal agencies remained the same.
Why could quantum computing become such a big risk?
This danger is not just a theoretical danger, but the issue has deeper roots. the Safe financial quantity The forum, which consists of members from central banks in the United States, Europe and Britain, as well as Mastercard and Barclays, said in February 2025 that quantum machines could be available within 10 to 15 years, although that could come much faster.
The concern is not only about future decryption attacks. Financial institutions rely heavily on public key cryptography for payment validation, inter-bank communications, identity verification, and other important aspects of banking operations. This means that an attack by a quantum computer on elliptic curve cryptography would affect several layers simultaneously, increasing operational and systemic risks.
In June 2026, credit ratings agency Moody’s made its position more clear when it warned that late adoption of post-quantum cryptography could be a source of credit risk. The agency said investment in quantum security is set to come into direct competition with spending on artificial intelligence.
The problem was exacerbated by Google’s own problem Quantum artificial intelligence research Which revealed that decoding the encryption has become 20 times easier than previous estimates. The amount of quantum computing (qubits) required to hack P-256, a unified algorithm widely used in financial services and government systems, would be about 26,000.
P-256 remains one of the most widely used elliptic curve standards in banking systems, payment processors, government networks, and enterprise authentication systems. This explains why researchers are increasingly focusing on post-quantum migration timelines rather than waiting for fully mature quantum devices.
Quantum computing to boost Bitcoin and crypto networks?
The way Draper describes quantum computing and its impact on cryptocurrencies completely turns the tables. Rather than seeing quantum computing as a threat to the cryptocurrency ecosystem, he sees it as an “opportunity,” noting that the first quantum users will mine Bitcoin and enhance the network’s security.
But this optimism has been criticized. As Jameson Loeb, chief security officer at self-custodial firm Casa, noted, upgrading Bitcoin to become quantum-resistant could take a decade, and nearly 4 million Bitcoins (nearly 25% of the total supply) have already been exposed to exposed public addresses. Loeb also claimed that banks could upgrade “high-volume orders faster,” which directly contradicts Draper’s hypothesis, Sahm Capital said, citing a previous Benzinga report.
This criticism brings one of the main differences between financial institutions and decentralized networks. Banks can enforce security upgrades through central governance mechanisms, while Bitcoin improvements must be approved by developers, miners, exchanges, wallet providers, and node operators.
Bitcoin saw a massive dump in June 2026. Bitcoin price It’s down about 9% over the past seven days. It is trading at $61,383 at press time.
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