Binance founder CZ eyes $1M Bitcoin as quantum computing threat looms larger

Changpeng Zhao stood on stage at Bitcoin Asia in Hong Kong on August 27 and made two predictions that sit in direct tension with each other. First: Bitcoin will hit $1 million “much quicker” than 25 years. Second: quantum computers are advancing fast enough that the network needs to start preparing its defenses now, not later. The $1M case and the quantum catch CZ’s price call wasn’t especially nuanced. He told the Hong Kong audience that Bitcoin would eventually become more important than gold. What made it notable was the timeline: he explicitly rejected the idea that a seven-figure Bitcoin is a quarter-century away, suggesting the path there could be considerably shorter. Bitcoin’s security relies on elliptic-curve cryptography, specifically a standard called secp256k1. A paper published by Google Quantum AI on March 30, 2026, recalibrated the math on how many qubits a quantum machine would need to break secp256k1. Previous estimates suggested millions of qubits would be required. Google’s revised modeling brought that number down to under 500,000 physical qubits. The Satoshi problem In June 2026, CZ floated a proposal that touched one of crypto’s most sensitive nerves. He sugge...