Aug 9, 2026
A minority Bitcoin blockchain fork created by BIP-110 supporters split from the main network at block height 961,632 but stalled after producing only two blocks, with lead mining group Roughnecks announcing it has ceased operations. The main Bitcoin chain pulled ahead by over 18 blocks as the controversial anti-spam proposal failed to gain miner support.
Bitcoin's controversial BIP-110 proposal nears its activation deadline at block 961,632 (approximately August 8, 2026) with minimal miner support of around 2.4%, far below the 55% threshold, raising concerns about a potential network fork. Michael Saylor has called on backers to stand down, while supporters have prepared contingency plans including a proof-of-work hard fork.
Zeus Wallet, a self-custodial Bitcoin Lightning Network wallet, shut down its infrastructure on Wednesday after experiencing a cybersecurity incident and is conducting a security audit before restoring services.
Non-custodial Bitcoin bridge Boltz halted all swap services indefinitely after a surge of AI-assisted hacking attempts over recent months outpaced the team's ability to patch vulnerabilities. The service connects Bitcoin's main chain with Lightning Network and Liquid sidechain.
Boltz, a non-custodial Bitcoin bridge enabling swaps between Bitcoin mainchain, Lightning Network, and Liquid sidechain, halted all services on August 3, 2026, citing an escalating wave of automated AI-assisted attacks that its small team could not patch fast enough. No user funds were compromised due to the platform's non-custodial architecture.
D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz warned that quantum computing will eventually be capable of breaking Bitcoin's proof-of-work protocol, while IBM separately announced achieving 'trusted quantum advantage' using 70 logical qubits. The developments highlight growing concerns about quantum threats to cryptocurrency security.
Stacks published its Q2 2026 report stating that cumulative users surpassed 1.6 million and that PoX-5, the mechanism powering Bitcoin Staking, had reached public testnet and was undergoing an audit ahead of a planned Q3 mainnet launch. Separately, the Sui Foundation launched the Hashi testnet on July 22, 2026, allowing BTC locked on the Bitcoin network to be represented by hBTC for use as collateral on Sui, with more than 25 institutional partners testing integrations.
Galaxy Digital launched the Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Initiative, committing up to $5 million in developer grants for post-quantum cryptography solutions and establishing an advisory council to prepare Bitcoin for potential quantum computing threats.
On July 16, 2026, T. Rowe Price listed TKNZ on NYSE Arca — the first actively managed multi-token spot crypto ETF — dynamically holding 5–15 assets from a 15-token universe at a 0.75% net fee, benchmarked against the FTSE Crypto US Listed Index.
Coinbase's quantum advisory council released a report urging cryptocurrency developers to begin post-quantum migration work immediately, highlighting the vulnerability of abandoned Bitcoin addresses and warning that handling these dormant coins could become a major challenge for the network.
A court in Qingdao, China sentenced a man surnamed Zhang to 10 years and nine months in prison for stealing 107 Bitcoin from victim Feng after memorizing most of the 12-word wallet recovery phrase. The ruling establishes legal precedent by treating Bitcoin as property under Chinese law.
A Bitcoin wallet dormant since March 2011 transferred 15 BTC on June 2, 2026, months after receiving a legal notice via blockchain demanding proof of ownership in a $285 billion lawsuit. The wallet retained 20.55 BTC as change.
NEAR Protocol plans to launch a post-quantum-safe signing testnet in Q2 2026 using FIPS-204 standard, allowing users to rotate keys to quantum-resistant alternatives. The announcement comes as Project Eleven warns quantum computing threatens blockchains, banking systems, and digital infrastructure, with concerns that Bitcoin may face challenges in quantum migration.
In a research note published May 3, 2026, Galaxy Digital Research Director Alex Thorn reported that the Bitcoin community is coalescing around a consensus to leave Satoshi Nakamoto's coins untouched while preparing for quantum computing threats through post-quantum cryptography adoption.
Venture fund Paradigm proposed a new design called PACTs that would allow long-term Bitcoin holders to privately timestamp proof of key control before quantum computers arrive, creating a potential rescue mechanism for vulnerable early Bitcoin holdings without moving funds onchain.
Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings announced the MARA Foundation to support Bitcoin network resilience, adoption, and address quantum computing risks. The foundation opened a $100,000 community grant vote for Bitcoin companies.
Paul Sztorc announced a Bitcoin hard fork that would introduce a competing layer-1 blockchain and seven layer-2 networks, with plans to reallocate Satoshi Nakamoto's estimated 1.1 million BTC reserve to investors.
Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, disclosed that the U.S. military is actively running a Bitcoin node and testing the protocol's cryptographic architecture as a tool for network security and power projection, though not mining BTC.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson releases a video calling BIP-361 a mischaracterized soft fork that would render 1.7 million BTC permanently unrecoverable. He tweets "Have fun stealing Satoshi's coins" directly at supporters of the proposal and argues Bitcoin's lack of on-chain governance makes the quantum problem unsolvable, while positioning Cardano's governance model as the alternative.
Bitcoin developers are weighing two approaches to quantum computing threats: BIP-361, which would freeze legacy coins over five years to force migration to quantum-resistant signatures, and BitMEX Research's 'Quantum Canary' bounty system that would only trigger a freeze after a proven attack occurs.
Jameson Lopp and five co-authors publish BIP-361, a three-phase plan to phase out legacy signatures and freeze any unmigrated coins within five years, including an estimated 1.1 million BTC attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto.
Wall Street broker Bernstein published research arguing that while quantum computing poses a real threat to Bitcoin, it represents a multi-year upgrade cycle rather than an existential crisis, with risks concentrated in older wallets and exposed keys.
Lightning Labs CTO Olaoluwa Osuntokun published a working prototype on April 8, 2026, that lets Bitcoin wallet owners prove ownership via a zero-knowledge proof of their seed phrase, without revealing it, providing an escape hatch if an emergency quantum-defense upgrade ever locks users out of their funds. Running on a consumer MacBook, the tool generates a verifiable proof in 55 seconds with a 1.7 MB output, closing a gap that had existed only in theory: how to protect Bitcoin from a quantum threat without freezing ordinary users out.
Algorand jumped 50% after a Google Quantum AI research paper highlighted the blockchain as a live example of post-quantum cryptography implementation, while warning that quantum computers could threaten Bitcoin and Ethereum's current cryptographic security.
Google researchers published findings showing quantum computers may require 20x fewer qubits than previously estimated to break elliptic curve cryptography used by Bitcoin and Ethereum. The research suggests fault-tolerant quantum machines capable of threatening crypto security could arrive by 2029-2032, accelerating industry urgency around post-quantum upgrades.
A group of Bitcoin developers propose BIP-360, introducing a new quantum-resistant transaction type called pay-to-Merkle-root (P2MR). The proposal creates a migration path for new coins but leaves billions in legacy addresses unprotected.
CoinShares published research, pushing back on estimates that 20–50% of Bitcoin faces quantum risk, arguing only ~1.6 million BTC in legacy P2PK addresses, roughly 8% of supply, is realistically targetable. The firm said breaking Bitcoin's cryptography would require quantum computers 100,000 times more powerful than today's and narrowed the true market-disruption risk to just ~10,200 BTC concentrated enough to cause meaningful price impact.