VanEck CEO Jan van Eck has delivered a stark warning about Bitcoin's vulnerability to quantum computing, stating his firm would abandon its Bitcoin investments if the cryptocurrency's encryption proves fundamentally broken. The comments come as Zcash, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency with quantum defense mechanisms, has surged 1,486% over three months.
Speaking on CNBC on November 22, van Eck questioned whether Bitcoin has "enough encryption" to withstand advances in quantum computing technology. His firm manages over $1.2 billion in Bitcoin through its spot exchange-traded fund, which launched in early 2024.
"Ultimately, VanEck has been around before Bitcoin. We will walk away from Bitcoin if we think the thesis is fundamentally broken," van Eck said during the interview. He emphasized that concerns about quantum computing and privacy limitations are now central questions for parts of the Bitcoin community.
VanEck's concerns echo broader institutional awareness of quantum threats. BlackRock updated its Bitcoin ETF filing in May 2025 to include explicit warnings that future quantum computers could break Bitcoin's cryptography, noting the network might need a "broad consensus upgrade" to remain secure.
The world's largest asset manager warned that advances in quantum computing "could compromise Bitcoin's cryptography," marking one of the first times a major financial institution formally disclosed quantum computing as a material risk factor for cryptocurrency investments.
Van Eck's comments referenced growing attention to privacy alternatives. He noted that longtime Bitcoin holders are examining Zcash, describing it as "sort of related to Bitcoin with a lot more privacy." The privacy coin has become a focal point for investors concerned about both transaction confidentiality and cryptographic resilience.
Zcash Rallies on Quantum Recoverability Plans
Zcash has experienced explosive growth, surging 1,486% over the past three months to reach its highest price since January 2018. The token traded around $565 as of November 24, 2025, representing a more than 10-fold increase from its September low of $74.30.
The rally coincides with heightened focus on the network's quantum defense strategy. Zcash engineer Sean Bowe explained that the cryptocurrency faces dual quantum risks that distinguish it from Bitcoin. A quantum computer could both expose past transactions and allow attackers to create counterfeit coins, whereas Bitcoin primarily faces the risk of stolen funds.
"In Bitcoin, the main risk is that someone could steal your money, but Zcash faces two risks," Bowe told Decrypt. "Because it's a privacy-focused system, there's the danger that a quantum computer could break the cryptography and let someone counterfeit coins. There's also the risk that a quantum machine could unwind users' privacy."
Network Built With Quantum Contingency System
Zcash developers have implemented what they call quantum recoverability, a system that would allow the network to pause and upgrade if quantum computers become powerful enough to break current encryption. Users would maintain access to their funds even after such an emergency upgrade.
Bowe said most protocol work for quantum recoverability is complete. The remaining changes involve wallet software rather than core network rules. "We should be able to have quantum recoverability support in our wallets next year," he explained. "It does not require a protocol change anymore."
The mechanism works by allowing the network to freeze if quantum threats materialize, preventing attackers from draining accounts before security upgrades take effect. Without such a system, quantum attackers could seize private keys faster than any upgrade could be deployed.
Bowe acknowledged that Zcash is not quantum-resistant today but emphasized the planned changes don't feel overwhelming to implement. The development team has worked on quantum threats for years and believes the community can coordinate major protocol changes within one or two years when needed.
Conflicting Timelines for Quantum Threat
The cryptocurrency industry remains divided on when quantum computers will pose genuine threats to blockchain networks. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warned at the Devconnect conference in Buenos Aires that quantum computers using Shor's Algorithm could break Bitcoin and Ethereum's elliptic curve cryptography as early as 2028.
"Elliptic curves are going to die," Buterin stated, pointing to the mathematical foundation securing most major blockchains. His timeline aligns with quantum computing researcher Scott Aaronson, who wrote that the "staggering rate of hardware progress" makes it a "live possibility" that a fault-tolerant quantum computer running Shor's algorithm could exist before the next U.S. presidential election in 2028.
However, cryptographer Adam Back offered a significantly more conservative assessment. The Blockstream CEO and cypherpunk cited in Bitcoin's original white paper stated Bitcoin likely won't face meaningful quantum threats for 20 to 40 years.
"Probably not for 20-40 years, if then," Back wrote on social media. "And there are quantum secure signatures, NIST standardized SLH-DSA last year. Bitcoin can add over time, as the evaluation continues and be quantum ready, long before cryptographically relevant quantum computers arrive."
Back explained that the National Institute of Standards and Technology has already approved post-quantum encryption standards that Bitcoin could implement long before quantum computers reach threatening capabilities. He noted current quantum machines are either too noisy to support encryption-breaking or severely lack the necessary qubit count.
Zcash Governance Advantage in Quantum Response
Bowe highlighted that Zcash's governance structure provides advantages for implementing quantum defenses compared to Bitcoin's more decentralized decision-making process. The privacy coin's community can align across independent organizations to coordinate security decisions relatively quickly.
"Privacy and quantum resistance are things we have thought about for a long time," Bowe explained. "We are willing to make major protocol changes over a year or two if needed, and we can get everyone onboard, even across different organizations in the community."
Bitcoin's decentralized structure, while providing resilience against centralized control, could make organizing network-wide quantum defense upgrades more difficult. The cryptocurrency has historically required years of consensus-building for major protocol changes, raising questions about whether it could respond quickly enough to a quantum breakthrough.
Deloitte research indicates that approximately 25% of Bitcoin in circulation is already vulnerable to quantum attack due to exposed public keys in older address formats. These coins could become targets once quantum computers achieve sufficient capabilities.
Privacy and Market Cycles Converge
Van Eck's comments extended beyond quantum concerns to address Bitcoin's transparent ledger, which he suggested clashes with rising expectations around transaction privacy. "When you move money around on the Bitcoin blockchain, you can see it," he noted, highlighting the appeal of privacy-focused alternatives.
The VanEck CEO also discussed Bitcoin's four-year market cycle pattern, stating the market appears to be pricing in a bear market for 2026. Bitcoin dropped over 30% from its October all-time high of $126,080 to trade around $86,200 as of November 23.
Van Eck recommended dollar-cost averaging during bear markets rather than chasing rallies, while maintaining that Bitcoin still belongs in investment portfolios due to global liquidity factors and on-chain fundamentals despite quantum concerns.
Following the interview, van Eck posted on social media that the current Bitcoin bear market reflects "the on-chain reality of the halving cycle (bearish for 2026), quantum-breaking-encryption concerns and the better privacy of Zcash."
Final thoughts
The quantum computing discussion has intensified following hardware breakthroughs from major technology companies. Google announced quantum achievements in late 2024, followed by Microsoft's unveiling of a quantum-enabling chip, pushing quantum danger into the center of cryptocurrency conversations.
Current quantum computers fall significantly short of the capabilities needed to break blockchain encryption. Breaking SHA-256, the encryption standard underlying Bitcoin security, would require quantum computers with approximately 8,000 error-corrected qubits. The Caltech neutral-atom array currently holds the qubit count record with 6,100 physical qubits but cannot break cryptographic systems due to noise and error correction requirements.
Physical qubits differ substantially from logical qubits, the error-free units required to run encryption-breaking algorithms. Real-world systems require multiple physical qubits to create each functional logical qubit, meaning current hardware remains orders of magnitude away from posing immediate threats.
Nevertheless, the cryptocurrency industry faces what researchers call the "harvest now, decrypt later" threat, where attackers could collect encrypted blockchain data today and decrypt it once quantum computers become sufficiently powerful. This concern particularly affects privacy coins like Zcash, where historical transaction confidentiality represents a core value proposition.
Zcash's price surge and quantum defense preparations signal growing market attention to cryptographic resilience as quantum computing advances from theoretical concern to engineering challenge. Whether Bitcoin's decentralized governance can coordinate necessary upgrades before quantum threats materialize remains one of the cryptocurrency's most pressing long-term questions.