Bitcoin and Ethereum Accelerate Quantum-Resistant Upgrades, US Invests $300 Million in Quantum Hardware

TechFlow reports that on September 10, according to CoinDesk, the U.S. Department of Commerce awarded up to $100 million each to three quantum computing companies—Rigetti, D-Wave, and Quantinuum—under the CHIPS Act, totaling up to $300 million to expand hardware, manufacturing, and error correction systems, while simultaneously acquiring minority stakes in all three companies.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin and Ethereum developers are accelerating the advancement of post-quantum cryptography upgrade plans. The Ethereum Foundation has set December 2029 as the deadline for foundational-layer quantum-resistant upgrades covering the execution, consensus, and data layers; although Bitcoin lacks a unified timeline, proposals BIP-360 (post-quantum output type) and BIP-361 (phasing out ECDSA and Schnorr signatures) are advancing rapidly, with researchers also identifying 2029 as a critical window for establishing a credible migration pathway.