Christopher Smith, co-founder and head of the Quantus Network, expressed concern in an interview with Cointelegraph that the first successful quantum attack on the cryptocurrency industry could go unrecognized. According to him, attackers can use a powerful enough quantum computer to recover a private key based on a public key that has already been disclosed on the blockchain. This method allows you to transfer funds without having to hack the physical device of the wallet, software or internal systems of the crypto exchange. As a result, the incident may be mistakenly classified as a common key leak or user error, which will significantly complicate the identification of the moment of the so–called "Q Day" - a hypothetical point when quantum computing will be able to crack standard public-key cryptography. In the case of an attack on a well-protected organization, the only indicator of compromise may be the absence of traces of classical cyber penetration.

Experts, including Smith and Blockchain Capital security researcher Sean Cheatham, consider it unlikely that the first target of a quantum attack would be the so-called "sleeping" bitcoins owned by Satoshi Nakamoto, estimated at about $65 billion at the time of publication. Instead, attackers are more likely to be interested in military information systems, government secrets, or critical administrative keys within the crypto industry itself. As a specific example of a vulnerable target, Smith cited Tether's USDT stablecoin issue key. Cheatham complemented this opinion, noting that the hot wallets of cryptocurrency exchanges look like a more realistic target, since the theft of funds from such addresses is less likely to attract global attention than the large-scale transfer of coins historically associated with the creator of bitcoin.

In response to the growing threats, technology companies are stepping up data protection measures. In March, Google accelerated its migration plan for post-quantum algorithms, setting a target date for the transition to 2029. This decision was made after a breakthrough in the field of artificial intelligence, which significantly reduced the estimate of computing resources needed to attack cryptography on elliptic curves. At the same time, experts' opinions on the exact timing of the quantum threat differ significantly. Christopher Smith estimates the probability of this scenario being implemented by 2028 at 50%. Roy Blackstone, head of NGRAVE, attributes the acceleration of risks to the parallel development of artificial intelligence and quantum computing technologies. Sean Cheatham considers the early 2030s to be an almost inevitable date, while Michael Coates, director of information security at the Solana Foundation, refrains from making specific predictions, emphasizing the impossibility of accurately determining the date of the appearance of sufficiently powerful quantum systems.