Decrypt’s Morning Minute, a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner, said Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake now believes artificial intelligence may pose a more immediate threat to crypto wallet encryption than quantum computers.
Drake says the industry should prepare for “bunker mode”
Drake has spent years warning that quantum computers could eventually break the mathematics securing crypto wallets. On Wednesday, he said something more alarming: AI might get there first, possibly within months.
According to the newsletter, Drake urged the blockchain industry to calmly begin planning for what he called “bunker mode.” His personal recommendation was a controlled mass migration of assets into fresh addresses, meaning addresses that have never sent a transaction and whose public keys remain hidden behind a hash.
He wrote: “Today I call upon the blockchain industry to calmly begin planning for ‘bunker mode’. My personal recommendation is to set in motion a controlled mass migration of assets to fresh addresses, i.e. addresses whose pubkeys remain hidden behind a hash.”
Why previously used wallets matter
The report said every wallet has a private key and a public key derived from it. A wallet’s public key stays hidden behind a scrambled form of itself until the owner spends from that wallet. Once a transaction is sent, the public key becomes permanently visible on the blockchain.
If an attacker can work backward from a public key to a private key, then every wallet that has ever sent funds is exposed. Wallets that have only received funds are not exposed in the same way.
The cryptographic system involved is ECDSA, which both Bitcoin and Ethereum rely on. Drake said it is now reasonable to prepare for a failure of that system before practical quantum computing arrives. In his worst-case framing, “breaking” it would mean recovering someone’s private key in about a week with a large cluster of graphics cards.
What changed his view
Drake linked his shift in thinking to the speed at which AI is solving difficult mathematical problems. He pointed to 722 mathematical results published by OpenAI on Tuesday.
His argument, as summarized by the newsletter, is that elliptic curves—the structure underlying ECDSA—contain the kind of rich mathematical patterns a superintelligent system could exploit. Hashing, by contrast, was designed to resist that kind of attack and is what keeps unused wallet public keys concealed.
Exchanges and issuers named in his warning
Drake specifically named Binance, Bitbank, Robinhood, Bitfinex, and Tether, asking them to harden their cold storage practices.
He also offered what the report called an unusual form of comfort for smaller holders. Roughly 20,000 addresses believed to belong to Bitcoin’s creator each hold 50 BTC and have exposed public keys. If someone developed this capability, Drake said they would likely target those wallets first. He called that “Satoshi’s shield.”
His message was not to panic
The newsletter said Drake was careful not to call for panic or rushed action. Instead, he urged holders to begin moving self-custodied crypto into new and safer wallets in an orderly way.
It also listed alternatives: use ETFs, use a proven custodian such as Coinbase, or, if you want to hold your own keys, work with experts to make sure best practices are in place.
The piece ended that section with a blunt line: taking action is likely better than burying one’s head in the sand and hoping the issue simply goes away.
Macro, crypto and market moves
Major crypto assets were lower again, down another 2% to 3% alongside stocks. Bitcoin was down 1% at $82.6k. Ether fell 2% to $2,540, SOL dropped 3% to $114, HYPE fell 4% to $86, and ZEC slid 8% to $1,210.
Among large altcoin movers, JUP rose 16%, ALGO gained 15%, STRK climbed 21%, and RAY added 7%.
Oil was up 3% to $93, while gold was flat at $4,140. Stock futures were in the red as oil and bonds kept moving higher, with the Dow down 0.9% and the Nasdaq down 0.8%.
Tom Lee comments on Bitmine’s ETH buying
Tom Lee said Bitmine will stop buying Ethereum once it holds 5% of supply. The report said the company is roughly 100,000 ETH away from that level. Ether fell about 5% on the remarks, according to the newsletter, after Bitmine had bought every single week since June 2025.
Policy, enforcement and institutional developments
House Financial Services Chair French Hill said SEC and CFTC rules are not enough, even while giving both agencies credit for acting. He argued that only legislation can deliver lasting certainty and said he still hopes to pass the Clarity Act in the lame-duck session.
Government wallets moved $103 million in seized crypto on Tuesday, sending 833.6 Bitcoin to Coinbase Prime and 40,285 BNB to a fresh address. The Bitcoin was tied to the Bitfinex hack and a separate fraud case.
Europol said crypto wallets are the main weak point for future quantum attacks in two reports published Wednesday. It concluded that crypto would not collapse, but warned that wallets which have already revealed their public key cannot be fixed later and must move funds before any attack happens.
The newsletter also said Wells Fargo is in talks with Kraken’s parent company to provide crypto trading liquidity, citing two people familiar with the matter. Under the reported structure, the bank would keep its own client relationships while Payward would handle pricing and execution.
Payments, consumer products and infrastructure
Polygon added Tron support to its payments stack, opening access to the $94 billion of USDT on that network. Businesses can now move Tether between Tron and Ethereum-style networks through one integration.
Gate said the biggest consumer trend in crypto this year and next will be an all-in-one money app, built around the idea that users want spending, saving, and trading in one place instead of across separate apps.
Corporate treasuries and ETF flows
Spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $485 million in net outflows on Wednesday. Spot Ethereum ETFs recorded $161 million in outflows.
Meme coins and chain-specific movers
Meme coin leaders were broadly lower. DOGE fell 3%, SHIB lost 2%, PEPE was down 1%, PENGU fell 1%, TRUMP was flat, SPX dropped 6%, and BONK lost 1%.
On the Robinhood chain, leaders stayed in a downtrend. Pons fell 5% to $260 million, AI dropped 12% to $108 million, and Cashcat lost 7% to $120 million. Hookr rose 60%, ZZZ gained 27%, and Bucket jumped 60% among the top movers.
Top Solana movers included MET up 50%, Dark up 165%, Crawl up 40%, and Stupid Inu up 160%.
Protocols, tokens and airdrop tracker
Hyperliquid led on-chain protocols by daily revenue at $2.77 million, followed by Pumpfun at $2.57 million and Stonk at $428,000.
Hyperliquid’s Jeff Yan said at DAS Asia 2026 that if he were starting over today, he would build an options product. He said he no longer thinks perpetual futures will absorb options traders, and argued that HIP-4 gives builders a direct path because it can use Hyperliquid’s existing order book and margin system while perps hedge the risk.
Hyperliquid Labs unstaked 3.75 million HYPE worth about $330 million and sent half of it to five private buyers in its largest team distribution to date. The report said the tokens are going to one undisclosed institution rather than being sold on exchanges.
Near Intents announced Confidential Intents on DarkSwap, enabling confidential swaps from Solana. DARK jumped 169% on the news.
NFTs were mixed
NFT leaders turned in a mixed session. CryptoPunks were flat at 33 ETH, BAYC rose 4% to 6.06 ETH, and Pudgy fell 8% to 2.88 ETH.
Claus, up 120%, and Trace, up 19%, led the top movers.