Jim Cramer Says He Will Sell All His Bitcoin, Fearing Quantum Computing Threat to Its Security Within 3 Years

August 4th - Former hedge fund manager and CNBC host Jim Cramer announced that due to concerns about the threat of quantum computing to Bitcoin's security, he plans to sell all his BTC holdings. His decision came after an interview with IBM's Chairman and CEO, Arvind Krishna, who warned that investors should be vigilant about the challenge quantum computing could pose to modern cryptography in the next 3 to 4 years.

Cramer believes that quantum computing could threaten the Bitcoin network in the near future. However, it is currently unclear how much BTC he holds or whether he has completed the sale. Following his statement, Bitcoin continued to trade around $63,764, with some market participants once again considering his viewpoint as a "reverse Cramer" signal.

Bitcoin uses the ECDSA signature scheme based on the secp256k1 curve. In theory, a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could derive a private key from a public key using the Shor's algorithm. The risk mainly lies in addresses with exposed public keys, including reused addresses, early wallet formats, and the brief time window between transaction broadcast and confirmation. Researchers estimate that around 6 to 7 million BTC, accounting for about 30% of the supply, may be in this category.

In March of this year, Google Quantum AI estimated that breaking the relevant cryptographic mechanisms might require fewer than 500,000 physical quantum bits, about 20 times lower than previous predictions. However, current quantum systems typically only have hundreds to thousands of physical quantum bits, with even fewer logical quantum bits for higher reliability. Most researchers anticipate that a quantum computer truly capable of breaking encryption may not appear until the 2030s or even the 2040s, making Cramer's 3-year prediction significantly earlier than most technological expectations.