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Quantum computing company PsiQuantum has begun construction of a large-scale facility in Chicago. Designed to host a machine with up to 1 million qubits, many researchers associate the threshold with commercially useful quantum systems. The project has also renewed discussion inside the crypto sector on whether quantum computing could eventually undermine the cryptographic foundations that secure Bitcoin.
The construction milestone was revealed on March 5, 2026, when PsiQuantum co-founder Pete Shadbolt shared an image of the Chicago site on X showing rapid early progress.
Time to build really big quantum computers. Five hundred tons of steel up in six days. Cryoplant delivery date breathing down our neck. Grateful to the many hundreds of people locked in to this mission pic.twitter.com/eqSwsESusK
— Pete Shadbolt (@PeteShadbolt) March 5, 2026
Shadbolt said around 500 tons of steel structures were installed within six days as crews prepared the site to house large cryogenic and computing infrastructure.
PsiQuantum announced in September 2025 that it had raised $1 billion to support the development of utility-scale quantum systems and is working with chipmaker Nvidia on software and hardware integration.
The company’s goal is to build a fault-tolerant quantum computer with roughly one million qubits, a scale widely viewed in the quantum computing field as necessary to correct errors and run complex algorithms reliably.
For comparison, one of the largest operational quantum computers today, developed at the California Institute of Technology, contains roughly 6,100 qubits, highlighting the engineering leap required to reach million-qubit machines.
PsiQuantum has also stated that the project is aimed at advancing computing for areas such as scientific modeling and artificial intelligence, not cryptocurrency attacks.
The announcement quickly revived a familiar debate in the crypto sector: whether sufficiently powerful quantum computers could break the mathematical problems that secure blockchain networks.
Bitcoin relies on 256-bit elliptic curve cryptography, a system designed to make private keys computationally impractical to derive from public keys using classical computers.
Recent academic research has suggested that roughly 100,000 qubits could theoretically break RSA-2048 encryption, although estimates vary depending on error correction and hardware performance.
🚨 QUANTUM THREAT TIMELINE NARROWS
Remember when breaking RSA-2048 required "millions of qubits"? That number keeps shrinking.
Iceberg Quantum just dropped a preprint claiming their Pinnacle Architecture can do it with ~100,000 physical qubits.
That's a 10x reduction from the… pic.twitter.com/N8UJ9oRp9W
— Dr. Hugh Bitt (@Cat_States) February 13, 2026
The gap between today’s systems and million-qubit targets explains why each new milestone in quantum infrastructure continues to draw attention from developers and investors.
The concern centers on unspent transaction output (UTXO) addresses with exposed public keys, particularly older wallets created in Bitcoin’s early years.
Digital asset manager CoinShares quantified this risk in February 2026, estimating that roughly 10,230 BTC sit in quantum-vulnerable addresses. Even if compromised, this $728 million exposure would be absorbed by the market as a routine block trade rather than a network-breaking systemic collapse.
There is a huge amount of misinformation about Bitcoin's quantum vulnerability, and by some very prominent people who should know better. By our estimates only around 10-20k bitcoin are vulnerable. Here is our work on the matter to help set the record straight.…
— James Butterfill (@jbutterfill) February 8, 2026
Not everyone in the crypto industry believes the risk is imminent.
Blockstream CEO Adam Back has also downplayed the urgency. In November 2025, he said cryptographically relevant quantum computers capable of threatening Bitcoin are likely 20 to 40 years away, adding that the network could become quantum-ready well before such machines emerge.
🔥 ADAM BACK: “Probably not for 20 to 40 years. Bitcoin can be quantum ready long before cryptographically relevant quantum computers arrive.”
The Bitcoin pioneer on BTC quantum risks. pic.twitter.com/wblzSbRTEk
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) November 17, 2025
Others see the issue as serious but manageable. On a February 24, 2026, episode of the Coinstories podcast, Michael Saylor said quantum computing concerns have circulated in Bitcoin discussions for years and are “not the greatest security threat right now.”
At the same time, developers are already preparing potential defenses. Bitcoin contributor Hunter Beast introduced BIP-360, a proposal aimed at introducing quantum-resistant cryptography to the network.
The issue extends beyond Bitcoin. Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, recently outlined a roadmap for transitioning parts of Ethereum’s infrastructure to quantum-safe signatures in the future.
BREAKING:
Vitalik Buterin proposes a 4-year roadmap for quantum-resistant Ethereum.
The plan identifies 4 core vulnerabilities and outlines multiple protocol upgrades to address them.
If quantum computing advances faster than expected…
Ethereum wants to be ready. pic.twitter.com/xmzpUkqzfj
— Merlijn The Trader (@MerlijnTrader) March 5, 2026
PsiQuantum’s Chicago facility will take years to complete, but its scale illustrates how quickly quantum infrastructure is expanding. For blockchain developers, that progress is reinforcing a parallel task: ensuring cryptographic systems evolve before quantum hardware eventually catches up.
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