El Salvador Redistributes Nearly 6,300 BTC to New Addresses Due to Quantum Threat
Date: 2025-09-01 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: IN WORLD
In late August, the Salvadoran authorities transferred 6,274 BTC, which had previously been stored at one address, to 14 new wallets. The value of these assets at the time of the transaction was estimated at approximately $682 million. This step was explained by the need to minimize possible threats associated with the development of quantum technologies, which could potentially jeopardize the cryptographic protection of bitcoin.
The Bitcoin Authority noted that when funds are spent, public keys become available for analysis, and with the advent of sufficiently powerful quantum computers, this could lead to compromise. Now, none of the new addresses contain more than 500 BTC, which reduces the risks in the event of a potential hack.
The transfers were recorded by on-chain analysts on August 29, 2025. Before this, all government reserves of Bitcoin were stored in one wallet, which caused concern among security experts.
Earlier, the research company Project Eleven warned that with the progress in quantum computing, more than 6 million BTC would be at risk, since their protection is based on cryptography using elliptic curves (ECC). However, at the moment, scientists emphasize: there is no practical application of these technologies yet. It is known that not a single quantum computer working on Shor's algorithm has been able to crack even a three-bit key, while Bitcoin uses a 256-bit system.
Despite these arguments, some supporters of the first cryptocurrency consider talk of a quantum threat to be overly dramatic. Michael Saylor, co-founder of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), said that "quantum risk is more noise." In his opinion, if the threat becomes real, the Bitcoin community will be able to update protocols and equipment in the same way as Microsoft or Google regularly do in the field of cybersecurity.
It is worth noting that the redistribution of assets occurred against the backdrop of ongoing negotiations between El Salvador and the International Monetary Fund. The IMF report stated that the country has not purchased new bitcoins since February 2025, despite government statements. Earlier, in December 2024, an agreement was signed to provide $1.4 billion in financing, which provided for a reduction in bitcoin initiatives. However, the details of the implementation of these conditions are still under discussion.
Recall that El Salvador previously took another step towards integrating cryptocurrency into the financial system by allowing investment banks to store bitcoin and provide their clients with services related to digital assets.
