While the crypto market debates whether holders should transfer their funds before advancements in artificial intelligence or quantum computing expose wallet keys, custodian companies face another issue: upgrading their systems before a mandatory emergency migration.
Project Eleven and the privacy-focused blockchain Quantus plan to add institutional custody support for Quantus in the first quarter of 2027, enabling institutions to manage keys and approve transactions through hardware security modules, internal policies, and audit systems.
The two companies stated that this integration is aimed at helping banks and custodian institutions to maintain their existing control systems when blockchain adopts potentially different quantum-resistant encryption standards.
Although the timing of the quantum threat is still uncertain, industry insiders suggest that institutions should begin to develop migration plans to avoid emergency switches and fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities.
Bitcoin developers are discussing how and when the network will need to be prepared for quantum computing. Meanwhile, the market is also urging crypto holders to enter a “risk-aversion mode” before advancements in artificial intelligence or quantum computing expose wallet keys, which has drawn more attention to individual wallet security issues.
However, for banks and custodian institutions, a more challenging issue may be whether their key management, approval, and auditing systems can keep up when different blockchains adopt their own distinct quantum-resistant security standards.
Project Eleven is a company that develops tools to protect encryption systems from future quantum computing attacks. The company, in conjunction with the privacy-focused proof-of-work blockchain Quantus, plans to integrate Quantus into the institutional hosting platform of Project Eleven, both parties stated in an email sent to CoinDesk.
The goal of the two companies is to provide support in the first quarter of 2027, enabling institutions to manage Quantus keys through hardware security modules, internal policies, and audit systems, as well as to approve transactions.
The importance of this integration lies beyond a single blockchain. It is unlikely that Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other networks will ultimately adopt the same post-quantum signature schemes or migration tables. Banks that hold multiple assets may need to adapt to various new cryptographic forms without compromising the control mechanisms that determine who can approve, sign, and audit transactions.
Project Eleven, co-founder and CEO, and Alex Pruden stated to CoinDesk that this transition may become an obstacle for institutions to adopt cryptocurrencies.
"Institutions are already making preparations for the post-quantum transition outside of blockchain," he added.
Quantus, co-founder and CEO, Christopher Smith, believes that artificial intelligence is "accelerating everything, including quantum hardware and quantum software."
He said about CoinDesk: "The residual risks of unexpected quantum attacks need to be taken into account in all investment portfolio decisions. This is a matter of fiduciary responsibility."
The concerns of Smith and Pruden arise as developers are formulating plans to protect Bitcoin and Ethereum from the threats of computers that may be capable of cracking today's public key cryptography in the future. Researchers and companies are increasingly viewing the coming years as a window of opportunity to prepare for migration, rather than waiting for quantum attacks to occur.
The hosting platform Strongpoint of Project Eleven aims to separate the signature schemes used by the institutional control layer from those used by the underlying blockchain. In simple terms, even if different cryptography is adopted on the chain, the host can still retain its approval processes, hardware-based key storage, and audit trails.
Pruden indicates that: Strongpoint is not an alternative to adopting post-quantum cryptography at the protocol layer. However, this decoupled architecture allows us to support various protocols in a more flexible manner.
Quantus uses ML-DSA, which is a post-quantum signature standard selected by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States for key generation and transaction signing. Smith states that institutions should regard unexpected quantum advancements as a risk to their portfolios, rather than just a technical issue.
It is still uncertain when quantum computers will be able to attack Bitcoin or Ethereum. However, network migration requires broad consensus among developers and users. While they argue, institutions are already preparing for the post-quantum transition outside of blockchain to avoid future emergency migration scenarios, says Pruden.
