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Jefferies Drops 10% Bitcoin Allocation, Moves to Gold on Quantum-Computing Risk

The move elevates quantum security concerns from a niche topic to a mainstream allocation issue.

Overview

  • Christopher Wood removed Bitcoin from his model portfolio and reallocated the 10% sleeve to 5% physical gold and 5% gold‑mining equities.
  • His note warns that cryptographically relevant quantum computers could derive private keys from exposed public keys in hours or days, challenging Bitcoin’s long‑term security.
  • Jefferies highlights vulnerable cohorts including 600,000–1.1 million BTC in early P2PK addresses and an additional 2–5 million BTC in lost or reused‑address wallets with exposed public keys.
  • External analyses cite broader exposure, from Coinbase’s estimate of about 6.5 million BTC with revealed public keys to ChainCode Labs’ upper bound near 10 million BTC.
  • Experts remain split on timing and remedies, with views ranging from a multi‑year risk window to decades away and proposals spanning post‑quantum upgrades to controversial ideas such as burning vulnerable coins.