The Solana Foundation has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) to collaborate on talent development, economic data sharing, and founder workshops. This partnership aims to support the growth of the Solana Economic Zone in Dubai, fostering innovation and building a strong blockchain ecosystem. Together, they plan to nurture local talent and provide resources to accelerate Solana-based projects in the region.
Bitcoin, the pioneering cryptocurrency, has reshaped how people worldwide perceive finance and money. However, as technology advances and external factors evolve, Bitcoin faces structural challenges that could impact its future existence and growth.
A recent discussion among industry leaders highlighted major risks that could pose a black swan event for Bitcoin’s future.
What Is the Biggest Threat to Bitcoin?
Lyn Alden, founder of Lyn Alden Investment, recently asked, “What is the biggest structural risk to Bitcoin in the next 5-10 years?” This question sparked significant attention and responses from investors, experts, and industry leaders, shedding light on pressing concerns.
One of the most frequently mentioned risks is the threat posed by quantum computing. Nic Carter, general partner at Castle Island Ventures, responded concisely: “Quantum.” His answer received widespread agreement.
“I increasingly agree. That was the catalyst for my thread/question, tbh,” Lyn Alden replied to Nic Carter.
Future quantum computers could break the encryption algorithms securing Bitcoin, such as the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA), which safeguards Bitcoin wallets. If a sufficiently powerful quantum computer emerges, it could forge digital signatures, allowing attackers to steal Bitcoin from any wallet with an exposed public key.
According to research by River, a quantum computer with 1 million qubits could crack a Bitcoin address. Microsoft has claimed that its new chip, named Majorana, is paving the way toward this milestone. This raises an urgent question: how much time does Bitcoin have before it must become quantum-resistant?
While the quantum computing threat is apparent, some argue that a more immediate challenge is whether the Bitcoin community can reach a consensus and implement quantum-resistant solutions in time.
“That’d be not coming to a consensus fast enough on the implementation of a quantum-resistant hashing algorithm,” Stillbigjosh, a former cybersecurity expert at Flutterwave, commented.
However, the founder of BlockTower, Ari Paul, pointed out that Bitcoin’s network faces a more immediate risk as attack costs have dropped significantly.
“Someone shorting 10%+ of BTC’s market cap then spending ~1/10th that to gain 51% control of hash power and mining empty blocks indefinitely, effectively turning off the network. Could fork the PoW algo, but just means the attack on the new network now costs <1/1000th the previous one,” Ari Paul noted.
The Risk of Conflict Between Bitcoin’s Decentralized Nature and Regulatory Oversight
Beyond technical challenges, some investors fear that government and institutional involvement will be Bitcoin’s biggest risk in the next 5-10 years.
“Government and institutional involvement changing the incentives of everything,” Investor Shinobi commented.
Bitcoin Holdings by Governments, Corporations, and Financial Institutions. Source: BitcoinTreasuries
Data from BitcoinTreasuries shows that over the past five years, Bitcoin holdings by private companies, public companies, governments, and ETFs have surged more than 12 times, from 210,000 BTC to over 2.6 million BTC. As a result, regulatory intervention could introduce legal pressures or unwanted changes to Bitcoin’s fundamental operations.
“The biggest structural risk is the friction between Bitcoin’s decentralized ethos and the increasing push for centralized regulatory oversight. In essence, as governments and large institutions tighten control and enforce compliance, the network might be forced to compromise on its core principle,” Investor MisterSpread warned.
The discussion sparked by Lyn Alden’s question suggests risks that could trigger black swan events for Bitcoin. It also reflects the growing awareness among industry leaders and investors about Bitcoin’s systemic risks in an era increasingly shaped by political stability and artificial intelligence.
Bitcoin’s decisive break above the psychological $95,000 barrier has reignited bullish momentum across the crypto market. As market sentiment becomes increasingly positive, crypto whales are buying several differentiating altcoins this week.
Among the top picks are Avalanche (AVAX), Ethereum (ETH), and meme-coin Pepe (PEPE), all of which have seen significant whale inflows this week.
Avalanche (AVAX)
Layer-1 (L1) coin AVAX has seen increased whale attention this week, reflected by the spike in its large holders’ netflow. According to IntoTheBlock, this has rocketed over 380% in the past seven days.
A large holder is a wallet address holding over 0.1% of an asset’s circulating supply. The large holders’ netflow tracks these investors’ buying and selling activity.
When it rises, crypto whales buy more tokens. This bullish signal often prompts retail investors to increase their holdings.
If AVAX’s accumulation trend persists, its price could breach the resistance at $24.28 and rally toward $30.23.
Conversely, if demand wanes, AVAX could fall to $14.66.
Ethereum (ETH)
Amid the recent broader market rally, ETH has recorded a modest 3% price uptick in the past seven days, buoyed by steady whale accumulation.
According to Santiment, during that period, whale addresses holding between 10,000 and 100,000 coins have acquired 280,000 ETH valued at over $510 million at current market prices.
As of this writing, this cohort of ETH whales controls 25.24 million ETH, their highest holding in the past month. ETH’s price could be driven above the psychological $2,000 mark if whale accumulation persists.
However, if the bears regain dominance, they could push the coin’s price to $1,733.
Pepe (PEPE)
Popular meme coin PEPE is another asset that has seen a surge in crypto whale accumulation this week. Per Santiment, wallet addresses that hold between 100,000 and 1 million tokens have bought 350 million PEPE in the past seven days.
At press time, the meme coin trades at $0.0000086. If whale accumulation persists, PEPE could reverse its current downtrend and break above the resistance at $0.0000010.
The crypto markets are recovering after experiencing bloodshed across the streets for a while. In the meantime, Bitcoin rebounds and reclaims levels above $90,000, flashing bullish signals for the upcoming price action. The lesser clarity on the crypto strategic reserve was speculated to have raised concerns, which has kept the price resitructed within a range. However, in a big announcement, the tables have turned for the BTC price rally, which is expected to remain elevated and reach $95,000 soon.
Ever since Donald Trump announced the creation of a crypto strategic reserve with the top cryptos like BTC, ETH, XRP, and ADA, the traders have become bullish on these cryptos. However, the President is about to take a step further and reveal the Bitcoin strategic reserve in the first ever crypto summit hosted by the White House. Soon after this, Bitcoin locked in its higher low and charged towards the range lows again.
Now, all eyes lie on reclaiming a pivotal resistance, which may make things better once that’s done.
The short-term price action of Bitcoin suggests the price has rebounded from the local lows and is believed to rise and reach the local highs. The stochastic RSI has rebounded from the lows and is heading towards the upper threshold. Besides, the conversion line of the Ichimoku cloud has triggered a bullish divergence, which suggests the price may continue to rise and reach the interim resistance at $91,320.
In the meantime, the bears have begun to exert significant pressure over the token, but the bulls appear to have held a tight grip over the rally. As a result, the BTC price is expected to keep up the momentum until Friday. However, after Donald Trump’s announcement on the Bitcoin strategic reserve, the price is expected to witness a huge bullish push, which could keep up the bullish trend and regain the lost levels.