A Wall Street analyst warns that quantum computing could eventually crack the cryptography of bitcoin

• Christopher Wood, a longtime bitcoin bull, just dumped his portfolio's holdings of the crypto.
• The Jefferies strategist said he believed quantum computing posed an existential risk to bitcoin.
• CRQCs, one type of supercomputer, could jeopardize as much as 50% of bitcoin's total supply, one study said.

A longtime crypto bull is ditching bitcoin for gold.

Christopher Wood, the global head of equity strategy at Jefferies, said he just cut bitcoin out of his firm's long-term model portfolio, where the token has accounted for around 5%-10% of the portfolio's allocation for the last five years.

That's because the price of the crypto has likely peaked, but also because there's an existential threat he sees jeopardizing the bitcoin ecosystem: quantum computing.

In a recent note to clients, Wood pointed specifically to CRQCs, or cryptographically relevant quantum computers — supercomputers that could potentially "steal" bitcoin from circulation, he said.

Bitcoin transactions are secured with cryptography, a coding system where transactions are encrypted with public keys, and access to the bitcoin itself is controlled by a private key. It would take supercomputers today "trillions of years" to derive a private key from a public one, given how complex the computations are, Wood said. But CRQCs could potentially reduce that time to something like several hours to several days, he speculated.

CRQCs don't yet exist, but chatter about the potential risks is already spreading across the bitcoin community, Wood said, pointing to a report from ChainCode Labs that estimated as much as 10 million tokens, or 50% of all bitcoin in circulation, could be accessed by a CRQC.

Some in the crypto community are arguing that the risk from CRQCs means "vulnerable coins" in the bitcoin ecosystem should be burned, Wood bited.

"While GREED & fear does not believe that the quantum issue is about to hit the Bitcoin price dramatically in the near term, the store of value concept is clearly on less solid foundation from the standpoint of a long-term pension portfolio," Wood said of his recent portfolio change. He added that he believed bitcoin reached its peak in the post-halving cycle at $126,000 last year.

Wood's team has replaced the allocation to bitcoin in the model portfolio with a 10% allocation to gold and gold mining stocks. The portfolio now has a total 45% allocation to physical gold, a 25% allocation to gold mining stocks, and a 30% allocation to Asian equities, excluding Japan.

"Meanwhile, the existential issue raised by quantum as regards Bitcoin can only be long-term positive for gold since it remains the historically stress tested store of value. Meanwhile, gold is also the best hedge, if not the only one, on the ever-rising geopolitical risks," Wood said.

It's been a rough few months for bitcoin, with the crypto tumbling into a bear market in late 2025 amid a broader risk-off move that was exacerbated by weak liquidity and concerns about the yen-carry trade.

Meanwhile, the case for owning gold has only grown stronger since its stunning rally in 2025. The metal saw its best performance since 1979 and continues to hover near a record high as investors seek protection from geopolitical conflict and inflationary pressures.