What exactly is El Salvador?
The government has redistributed around 6,274 BTC (around $ 678 million at the time of publication) from an address at 14 new addresses, each capped at 500 BTC, as a precautionary safety measure.
Until the end of August 2025, the El Salvador Bitcoin National Reserve was seated in a single address. It is a simple but risky configuration: if a vulnerability is discovered, the whole hiding place could be exposed.
The National Bitcoin Office (ONBTC) announced that the assets were divided on 14 addresses. Each portfolio contains up to 500 BTC, a “fragment and propagation” approach intended to limit losses if only one address was never compromised. Onchain’s data confirmed the transfers, which were completed in a single scan.
By fragmented the funds, El Salvador has essentially created fire breakage: even if a wallet is compromised, the loss is capped.
Did you know? El Salvador has become the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal on September 7, 2021, making it an official currency alongside the US dollar.
Why is quantum IT is part of the conversation?
Bitcoin cryptography is solid today, but quantum computers can one day break mathematics behind private keys.
Bitcoin safety is based on the digital signature algorithm of the Elliptical Courbe (ECDSA). When the documents are spent from an address, the public key of this address becomes visible onchain.
In a distant and post-quantum scenario, sufficiently powerful machines could reverse these public keys from their corresponding private keys, allowing the theft of exposed addresses.
The ONBTC of El Salvador, the agency responsible for the Bitcoin strategy of the country, underlined this exact risk. In its messaging, ONBTC highlighted the vulnerability of the public keys exposed and explained the logic of dividing the funds through new unused addresses.
– Percentage of BTC at risk. Source: Project Eleven (January 17, 2025) and Ycharts (June 18, 2025)
Related: Bitcoin must upgrade or be the victim of quantum computer science in 5 years
Is it an imminent threat?
Unlikely. Experts agree that quantum computers are far from powerful enough today to break the cryptography of Bitcoin. Estimates are growing risk decades in the future, if it ever gets materialized. And if so, the Bitcoin network can upgrade its cryptographic standards.
In 2025, no public quantum computer has demonstrated anything close to the ECDSA 256 -bit rupture at the Bitcoin scale.
A quantum research company, Project Eleven estimated that more than 6 million BTCs could be in danger if the keys to the elliptical curve were broken. However, he also noted that no machine operating on the Shor algorithm has so far cracked a 3 -bit toy key. In other words, the area is progressing, but the Gulf towards Bitcoin rupture is vast.
The votes of the industry have minimized immediacy. Michael Saylor de Strategy rejected rhetoric around quantum threats, calling a large part of the “media threshing” alarm, adding that if the risk becomes real, the Bitcoin network can meet it with software and hardware upgrades, just as other critical systems do it regularly.
Did you know? The US National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) began to standardize post-quantity cryptography in 2022.
What really division portfolios?
The displacement of funds in unused addresses maintains the hidden public keys, and the sales division limits damage if an address is never cracked.
Unused Bitcoin addresses do not expose public keys. By moving the whole reserve in several new portfolios, El Salvador made sure that none of his assets currently reveals vulnerable data.
The 500-BTC cap per portfolio is another defense layer. If a quantum feat never arrives, no violation would empty the national treasure. Consider it as a locking treasure in several vaults instead of keeping everything in a single trunk.
Transparency has not been lost either: ONBTC maintains a public dashboard showing portfolios, balancing security and responsibility.
Why do this now if quantum computers are not ready?
El Salvador has not divided its Bitcoin reserve because quantum computers are at the doors; He did it to show the world that he can govern as a serious player. The move indicates provident, transforms a threat into a account of responsibility and reassures the skeptics that the betcoin bet of the country is more strategy than cascade.
President Nayib Bukele has built his political identity around Bitcoin since he returned the legal in 2021. This Bold Wager pulled the applause of cryptographic circles and net reproaches of heavy goods vehicles such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
At the end of 2024, El Salvador concluded a staff level with the fund, finalized in February 2025 as an extended funding of 40 months and 1.4 billion dollars. The documents reported a risk of Bitcoin over and over again, and in mid-2025, the IMF had already completed its first program review and its consultation with article IV.
In this context, El Salvador’s decision to tighten the guard – even against a quantum threat which may not materialize for decades – is less like a science fiction paranoia and more like calculated states.
By launching the upgrade as a cover against the next era of cryptography, the government is positioning itself as a player not only reacting in the future, but by waiting for him, while arguing skeptics in the country and abroad.
Did you know? Under IMF rules, Article IV consultations are compulsory annual exams for the economy of a country. El Salvador’s review in 2025 specifically noted Bitcoin as a factor in financial stability assessments.
What do criticism say?
Supporters call it a plan turned forward; The skeptics call theaters of the quantum angle, but most agree that the underlying guard practices are solid.
Supporters argue that El Salvador has created a plan for fragmented, transparent and proof of the future sovereign. For them, even if the quantum risk is distant, there is no trouble going forward.
The skeptics compress that this decision concerns more securities than real security. Since the quantum risk is negligible in the short term, they argue that the reshuffle does not materially change the position of El Salvador.
However, criticisms admit that the practice, the division of assets and the reuse of the keys, is a healthy Bitcoin hygiene, even without the quantum angle.
Could this create a precedent for other nations and institutions?
The wallet portfolio may seem eccentric, but it establishes a clear game book for the Bitcoin sovereign guard which is true and ready for future cryptography. Even if the quantum risks are distant, the move Recadishes Bitcoin as a class of assets sufficiently serious for best institutional practices.
The Bitcoin Guard of the Nation State is still an unexplored territory. El Salvador’s actions show how governments can balance transparency with security, demonstrating techniques that exchanges, guards or even societies could adopt.
For institutional investors who have billions of bitcoins, the episode highlights best practices: never reuse addresses, reserves of fragments and reflect on long -term threats.
That the others follow the example of El Salvador depends on the serious of the quantum narrative. But the optics alone – seeming proactive, non -reactive – can push others to adopt similar measures.
Was it necessary?
Maybe not, but it was intelligent. The reserve division costs little, the risk of ceilings and the signals that El Salvador deals with his Bitcoin as a strategic treasure, not a title stroke.
The movement of El Salvador does not imply that a quantum attack is close. This implies that a sovereign holder does not expect to think of the risks of box. By reducing the potential losses of the worst cases, preserving transparency and showing preparation for police custody, the country treats its bitcoin as a strategic asset, not a blow.
Whether the “quantum threat” has happened for decades or never, operational upgrades are worth doing anyway. The price of being early is a working process work; However, the price of being late could be catastrophic. In this calculation, the propagation of $ 678 million on several strong boxes is less like a media threw and more as a responsible housekeeping interview.