Bitcoin's 46% Drop From ₱7,317,626 ($126,000): Not Quantum, Says Developer

Bitcoin developer Matt Corallo rejected the idea that quantum computing fears drove Bitcoin's 46% decline from its October high of ₱7,323,433 ($126,100) to approximately $67,000, speaking on Laura Shin's Unchained podcast.

The parallel weakness between Bitcoin and Ether undercuts claims that quantum risk is uniquely hitting Bitcoin, Corallo said. Ether fell roughly 58% since its early-October market break. If investors were pricing in imminent quantum threats to Bitcoin's cryptography, Ether would likely be outperforming rather than falling in tandem. Corallo framed the current environment as Bitcoin competing for capital against other sectors, especially artificial intelligence.

The quantum narrative gained traction after BlackRock amended its iShares Bitcoin ETF registration statement to flag quantum computing as a potential risk to the network's integrity. Bitcoin's earliest transactions used pay-to-public-key outputs that expose public keys directly on-chain, making them particularly vulnerable to quantum attacks via Shor's algorithm. Bitcoin Quantum testnets launched in January 2026 to experiment with NIST-standardized post-quantum cryptography algorithms including ML-DSA.

Bitwise head of European research André Dragosch said Bitcoin appears undervalued relative to global money supply growth, gold, and exchange-traded product flows. He expects consolidation rather than rapid recovery, noting that sharp capitulations rarely produce immediate V-shaped rebounds outside crisis events. Glassnode's True Market Mean model currently sits near $79,000, while the Realized Price lower boundary stands at approximately $54,900.

Bitcoin mining difficulty climbed to 144.4 trillion in a 15% increase, the largest percentage jump since 2021. Hashrate recovered to approximately 1 zettahash per second after falling to 826 exahash per second in February when prices slid toward $60,000. The United Arab Emirates holds roughly ₱19.98 billion ($344 million) in unrealized profit from mining operations, while hashprice sits near multi-year lows around $23.9 per petahash per second.