Satoshi Nakamoto’s Multi-Billion Dollar Bitcoin Fortune At Risk After Quantum Hack? Analyst Counters Eventuality Of Massive Market Crash

Early Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) investors would buy up Satoshi Nakamoto’s stash during a flash crash sparked by a quantum computer hack, cryptocurrency analyst Willy Woo predicted on Sunday.

What Happens After Bitcoin’s Quantum Hack?

Woo responded to an X post by English YouTuber Josh Otten about the potential of a functional quantum computer using Shor’s algorithm to break the encryption protecting Bitcoin’s oldest wallets.

Shor’s algorithm is a quantum algorithm widely believed to have the potential to break encryption systems such as Elliptic Curve Cryptography used to secure Bitcoin wallets.

This, Otten believed, would expose the private keys of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto’s wallet, estimated to hold 1.096 million BTC, worth $98.25 billion, according to on-chain analytics firm Arkham.

“This would expose the private keys to Satoshi Nakamoto’s fortune, likely crashing the market and destroying trust in the whole system,” Otten added.

Many OGs would be in to buy the flash crash.

BTC network would survive, most coins are not immediately vulnerable.

However 4M coins in P2PK addresses (including Satoshi’s) have their public keys in the open and are vulnerable.

->Many year shakeout.

— Willy Woo (@woonomic) December 14, 2025

Bitcoin OGs Will Buy The Dip?

Woo, a vocal Bitcoin advocate, offered a different perspective.

“Many OGs would be in to buy the flash crash. BTC network would survive, most coins are not immediately vulnerable,” Woo argued.

That said, they acknowledged that 4 million coins in Pay-to-Public-Key addresses, including Satoshi’s, with public keys in the open, are vulnerable.

See Also: Bitcoin (BTC) Price Predictions: 2025, 2026, 2030

The Looming Quantum Threat

The quantum threat to Bitcoin has been a hot topic of debate in the cryptocurrency community. 

Jameson Lopp, co-founder and chief security officer at self-custody platform firm Casa, told Benzinga earlier that about 4 million BTC, nearly 25% of the total supply, have already had their public addresses exposed.

He estimated a “greater than 50% chance” that it will take at least another decade before a quantum computer, powerful enough to decode a Bitcoin public key to find its corresponding private key, becomes a reality.

The launch of Google’s next-generation quantum chip, “Willow,” last year sparked concerns for Bitcoin’s cryptography due to its rapid computation capabilities.

Price Action: At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $89,613.80, down 0.68% over the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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