TLDR
- Vitalik Buterin backed Ethereum researcher Justin Drake’s call for crypto users to prepare for “bunker mode.”
- AI math breakthroughs could crack ECDSA, the signature system that secures Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets.
- Drake recommends a slow, controlled move of funds to fresh addresses with hidden public keys.
- Buterin warned that even quantum-resistant lattice cryptography could weaken under fast AI progress.
- Project Eleven’s Bitcoin Risq List already tracks more than 14 million exposed addresses.
Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, has backed a warning from fellow researcher Justin Drake about the future of crypto security. Drake says artificial intelligence could break the cryptography behind Bitcoin and Ethereum before quantum computers ever do.
Drake posted his warning on Wednesday. He called for the industry to consider entering “bunker mode” by slowly moving funds to new wallet addresses.
Today I call upon the blockchain industry to calmly begin planning for "bunker mode". My personal recommendation is to set in motion a controlled mass migration of assets to fresh addresses, i.e. addresses whose pubkeys remain hidden behind a hash.
Holders, starting with large…
— Justin Drake (@drakefjustin) October 7, 2026
Buterin responded directly to the post. He said people should not rush to move their funds right away.
“But we should take the risks to cryptography from AI-accelerated math seriously,” Buterin wrote.
Vitalik Buterin Warns AI Could Undermine Cryptography Within Two Years
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warned that AI could accelerate mathematical advances enough to weaken lattice-based cryptography, including ML-DSA and FHE, within two years, potentially putting ECDSA at… pic.twitter.com/DPUdESLVNC
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) October 8, 2026
Why AI Has Researchers Worried
Drake’s concern follows a release from OpenAI this week. The company published 722 mathematical manuscripts produced by one of its internal models.
Last month, a group of 10,000 AI agents working together solved the Navier-Stokes equation. That is one of the hardest unsolved problems in math and physics, and the agents did it in 88 hours.
Drake said these results show how fast AI is moving in mathematics. He said elliptic curve cryptography, which protects Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets, could be an early target.
“Curves carry rich structure, with room for fancy tricks,” Drake wrote. He said hash functions are built to avoid that kind of structure, which may make them safer.
Buterin went further and said lattice-based cryptography, often seen as quantum-resistant, might not be safe either. He said this is one reason Ethereum’s long-term roadmap is moving toward hash-based systems.
Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi also weighed in. He called Drake’s warning “a very sober call” and said the real risk is normal math, not quantum computing.
What Drake Is Asking Holders to Do
Drake’s main recommendation is moving crypto funds to fresh addresses whose public keys have never been exposed. A public key becomes visible once an address signs a transaction.
He said large and sophisticated holders should move first. Any funds left behind after a transaction should also be shifted to a new address.
Drake named several companies, including Binance, Bitbank, Robinhood, Bitfinex, and Tether. He asked them to consider stronger protection for cold storage funds.
He also pointed to Project Eleven’s Bitcoin Risq List. The list already tracks more than 14 million bitcoin addresses with exposed public keys.
Drake said wallets under 50 BTC get some cover from what he called “Satoshi’s shield.” About 20,000 addresses tied to Bitcoin’s creator each hold 50 BTC and would likely be targeted first.
Buterin supported the idea of using unused addresses, calling it “a good idea” if it is not difficult to do. He also shared a personal warning about the process itself.
“I personally have lost more money in botched migrations than I have lost in all hacks combined,” Buterin wrote.
Drake agreed that any shift needs to be slow and careful. He said a rushed migration would cause more harm than the risk it is meant to prevent.
Drake said the long-term fix is what he calls “post-AI cryptography.” He said he favors systems built on hash functions rather than elliptic curves, and noted that Ethereum’s draft roadmap already points in that direction.
