Experts Split as CZ Floats Freezing Satoshi's 1.1 Million Bitcoin

CZ proposes freezing Satoshi's coins to block quantum theft

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has floated freezing Satoshi Nakamoto's dormant bitcoin if quantum computers ever threaten the network's cryptography. He raised the idea on a podcast with Alex Thorn of Galaxy Digital. Zhao suggested giving Satoshi six to 12 months to move the coins. If nothing happened, he said the community could decide whether to freeze those addresses. The coins have not moved since Bitcoin's earliest years, and Satoshi's holdings are estimated at about 1.1 million bitcoin.

"If we don't do anything with it, then we're basically giving it to somebody who's going to hack it." — Changpeng Zhao, Founder, Binance

Investors and developers split over the freeze idea

The proposal quickly divided some of the industry's best-known investors and developers. Michael Terpin, founder and chief executive of Transform Ventures, warned that a freeze would breach Bitcoin's permissionless design. Terpin also doubted that the decentralised community could agree on such a change.

"While I appreciate the proactivity in CZ's proposal, it begins a slippery slope of creating permission in a permissionless system relative to personal property." — Michael Terpin, Founder and CEO, Transform Ventures

Others framed the debate differently. Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise, said he preferred a plan from Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter to place the coins in a legal trust. Hougan added that he saw no outcome around Satoshi's coins as positive for the market. Jameson Lopp, co-founder and chief security officer at Casa, described Zhao's comments as musing on the threat rather than a formal proposal.

Lopp's BIP-361 proposes a phased quantum migration

Lopp co-authored BIP-361, a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) that sets out a phased move to quantum-resistant cryptography. The plan would first block new transactions to legacy address types. It would then invalidate legacy signatures at the network level. Bitcoin left in vulnerable addresses would become effectively frozen. Researchers are still studying a later phase that could let owners recover frozen coins using zero-knowledge proofs. The proposal remains in draft form, with no activation date set.

Over a third of bitcoin sits exposed on-chain

The concern rests on how much bitcoin sits exposed. As of 1 March 2026, more than 34% of all bitcoin had revealed a public key on-chain, according to the BIP-361 documentation. Coins in that state could be stolen by a sufficiently advanced quantum computer. Analysts also warned that any sudden sale of Satoshi's coins could flood the market. Those coins draw the most attention because of their size and age.

Bitcoin trades near $63,000 at time of publication

Bitcoin traded at about $63,150 at the time of publication, up 0.8% over the past 24 hours and up 5.2% over the past week (CoinPaprika, 6 July 2026). That left it roughly 50% below its October 2025 record of about $126,000 (CoinPaprika, 6 July 2026). At that price, Satoshi's estimated 1.1 million bitcoin would be worth close to $69 billion.