A former Wall Street trader is making some pretty bold claims about Bitcoin security right now. Josh Mandell, who’s been active on the X platform, is suggesting that old, dormant Bitcoin wallets—the ones people call “deceased”—are being quietly emptied. And he’s not talking about simple hacking.
Mandell thinks a “large player” might be using advanced technology to pull this off, allowing them to gather more Bitcoin without ever having to buy it on the open market. It sounds like something from a tech thriller, honestly. He gained some attention earlier this year for a Bitcoin price call that turned out to be right, which is maybe why people are listening now. Or at least, why they’re talking about it.
Strong Pushback from the Community
Not everyone’s buying it. In fact, a lot of people in the crypto space are pushing back pretty hard. Harry Beckwith, who founded Hot Pixel Group, didn’t hold back. He said flatly, “There is literally no chance this is currently happening.” Matthew Pines from the Bitcoin Policy Institute called the assumption “false.” And then there were the less formal responses—one person joked, “That’s enough computer time for you today, grandpa.”
It’s not that the idea is completely impossible in some distant future. It’s just that the tech required to break Bitcoin’s encryption doesn’t exist yet. Not even close.
Why This Isn’t Happening Now—But Might One Day
Breaking the cryptography that protects Bitcoin would take immense computing power. We’re talking about millions of stable quantum bits, or qubits, that are error-corrected. Even with recent progress from companies like Microsoft and Google, quantum computing is still in its infancy. It’s nowhere near a point where it could threaten Bitcoin today.
That said, it’s not a totally crazy thing to think about long-term. Some experts do believe quantum computing could become powerful enough to be a real problem within the next couple of decades. It’s a theoretical threat, but one that’s taken seriously in some circles.
A Precautionary Thought
Jameson Lopp, a well-known cypherpunk, has actually talked about this kind of scenario before. He’s argued in the past for “burning” Bitcoins that would be vulnerable to quantum attacks, just to be safe. He’s also warned that if large-scale quantum theft ever did happen, it could seriously damage confidence—and crash the price.
So maybe Mandell’s theory isn’t happening right now. Probably isn’t. But it does point to a larger conversation about how secure digital assets will be years down the line. It’s less about immediate panic and more about being prepared for what might come.
