Over 6 million bitcoin sit behind exposed public keys as AI warnings mount
Summary
More than 6 million BTC, or 31.2% of circulating supply, sit behind public keys visible onchain, according to Glassnode. Exposed supply has risen by 222,000 BTC since May, outpacing the 64,000 BTC increase in total supply; exchanges account for 123,000 BTC of the rise. Exposure varies widely among custodians, from 10% at Coinbase to 83% at Binance, while some firms and governments show little or none. Visible public keys can result from address reuse or certain Bitcoin output types. A sufficiently capable quantum computer or mathematical breakthrough could potentially derive the corresponding private keys. The figures arrive amid warnings that AI could accelerate efforts to break wallet cryptography.
