BitGo CEO Mike Belshe Rejects Claim That AI Can Break Bitcoin

HIGHLIGHTS BitGo CEO Mike Belshe denied the claim that AI will break Bitcoin’s cryptography. Quantum Resistance Score feature on BitGo enables on-click fix for wallet with exposed public key. Vitalik Buterin warned AI risks to lattice-based cryptography and Ethereum's focus on a hash-only cryptography. BitGo CEO Mike Belshe has rejected the claim that artificial intelligence (AI) will break Bitcoin’s cryptography. However, he agreed with concerns over the need to protect crypto wallets now for post-quantum risks.

On October 8, Belshe reacted to Bitcoin security researcher Justin Drake’s call to begin planning for “bunker mode” and transfer crypto assets to new addresses. Belshe agreed with Drake’s conclusion to protect wallets now but disagrees with the thesis that AI will crack Bitcoin.

He noted that BitGo has implemented a Quantum Resistance Score that shows what percentage of a crypto wallet is protected and how many Bitcoin wallet addresses are exposed.

The features also include a one-click fix that moves funds into fresh, unexposed addresses, and an updated UTXO selection algorithm optimized for quantum resistance rather than only for fees.

Notably, Bitcoin addresses such as standard legacy (P2PKH) and modern SegWit formats are obfuscated by cryptographic hashing rather than exposing raw public keys to the public ledger.

As CoinGape reported recently, BitGo’s institutional client base grew from 4,621 to 5,833 in Q2 2026, while normalized assets increased from $49.6 billion to $65.2 billion. Banks use BitGo’s Crypto-as-a-Service models to integrate digital assets while retaining control over security, governance, and compliance.

Mike Belshe earlier challenged Anthropic to hack a wallet holding 100 BTC, sharing the address as proof after disputing AI hacking claims earlier this year. Belshe’s latest response separates that urgency about key hygiene from the stronger claim that AI has already put Bitcoin’s signatures on a short clock.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warns AI-accelerated maths could weaken lattice-based cryptography in 2 years. Not only quantum-vulnerable crypto schemes like ECDSA but lattice-based cryptography like ML-DSA and FHE are also under risks.

Buterin said Ethereum has focused on a “hash-only” direction rather than lattices. He claimed that hash-based methods are more resistant to AI-accelerated attacks. Vitalik Buterin advises off-chain multisig confirmations and fresh addresses to minimize AI risks.

Meanwhile, Europol urged crypto industry to begin preparing for quantum computing threats early. The agency warned that crypto wallets are the primary point of exposure to quantum attacks.