XRP currently has a much smaller quantum attack surface than Bitcoin, according to analysis cited by XRPL validator Vet. He said about 21 million XRP is held in wallets with revealed public keys, equal to roughly 0.03% of the circulating supply. Those funds are tied to two long-dormant whale accounts.
Most XRP wallets, by contrast, have never exposed their public keys through transactions. The analysis says around 300,000 accounts holding 2.4 billion XRP remain unexposed. In Vet’s view, that leaves those accounts “quantum-safe by default,” because XRPL does not require public key exposure before funds are spent.
Bitcoin’s transaction model creates a larger exposed surface
The comparison turns on how the two networks handle accounts and transactions. Bitcoin reveals more public keys during normal usage, and early P2PK outputs along with address reuse add to the issue. Current estimates suggest that 11% to 37% of Bitcoin’s supply could fall into a potentially vulnerable category.
That figure includes coins from the network’s early days that cannot rotate keys. If quantum computing capabilities advance enough in the future, those holdings would remain exposed in theory. The article also makes clear that this is not an immediate operational threat today, since no known quantum computer can break blockchain cryptography at present.
Key rotation gives XRP more room to respond
Vet said XRP supports key rotation, allowing users to update credentials without moving funds. Bitcoin does not have an equivalent native feature. That design difference matters because it lets XRP holders adjust account security without sending assets on-chain first.
XRP also includes escrow and time-lock functions that can limit access conditions. Those tools do not change the basic point that quantum risk remains theoretical for now. They do, however, help explain why XRP’s current exposure looks materially lower than Bitcoin’s under this comparison.