Once a wallet signs a transaction, the public key required to verify that signature is permanently published to the blockchain
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That exposure has reached a massive scale, with Glassnode noting that about 6.04 million Bitcoin, representing 30.2% of the asset’s circulating supply, are currently held in wallets with exposed public keys.
Key facts
Bitcoin ETF issuers like Fidelity maintain exposure levels near 2%, while rivals like Grayscale and WisdomTree have exposure levels of around 50% and 100%, respectively
With users holding more than $40 billion in Bitcoin on the platform, per DeFiLlama data, that methodology places over $34 billion of those assets squarely in the exposed category
The share of exchange-held Bitcoin considered operationally safe has steadily fallen from about 55% in 2018 to roughly 45% today
That exposure has reached a massive scale, with Glassnode noting that about 6.04 million Bitcoin, representing 30.2% of the asset’s circulating supply, are currently held in wallets with exposed
Summary
Over 30% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply sits in wallets with exposed public keys, making exchange custody the clearest Bitcoin quantum computing risk. Cryptocurrency exchanges are emerging as the clearest pressure point in Bitcoin’s long-running debate over quantum computing risk, sitting on millions of coins with publicly visible cryptographic keys. Bitcoin quantum risk begins with a fundamental feature of its transaction verification: public keys are hidden until funds are spent. Once a wallet signs a transaction, the public key required to verify that signature is permanently published to the blockchain.