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President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on June 22 aimed at cementing US dominance in quantum computing while accelerating the federal government’s shift to quantum-resistant encryption.
The first order, “Ushering In The Next Frontier Of Quantum Innovation,” targets a research-grade quantum computer at a national laboratory by 2028 and directs federal agencies to deploy quantum sensors and networking within five years.
The second order moves the federal deadline for post-quantum cryptography (PQC) adoption from 2035 to December 2031, with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) required to pilot-test PQC algorithms by the end of 2027.
BREAKING: President Trump has signed a pair of Executive Orders aimed at speeding up the development of advanced quantum computers.
Details include:
1. Order 1 directs federal agencies to work with the private sector and academics to deploy a quantum computer powerful enough to…
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) June 22, 2026
The orders followed the Commerce Department’s late-May announcement of $2.013 billion in funding across nine quantum companies via the CHIPS and Science Act, with IBM the top recipient at roughly $1 billion for a domestic quantum foundry.
The funding news triggered the sharper of the two reactions: shares of D-Wave, Rigetti and Infleqtion each surged more than 30% per session. By comparison, the executive orders produced a milder follow-through.
The June 22 executive orders, more symbolic than the direct equity stakes, produced a smaller follow-through, with Rigetti up 5.9%, D-Wave up roughly 7.5%, and IBM up 3.6% on the day. The pattern mirrors Trump’s 2018 National Quantum Initiative Act, where funding, rather than policy announcements alone, drove investor interest. IonQ remains the leading pure-play quantum company by revenue, while D-Wave reported a sharp increase in bookings tied to enterprise demand.
Despite the rally, analysts continue to warn that valuations remain elevated relative to current revenue, with Quantinuum’s expected IPO adding competitive pressure to the sector.
The accelerated PQC deadline reopened a long-running argument over crypto’s quantum exposure. Coinbase’s advisory council has estimated that roughly 7 million BTC could eventually be vulnerable to a sufficiently powerful quantum computer, since Shor’s algorithm could theoretically break Bitcoin’s elliptic curve signatures once a machine reaches an estimated 500,000 or more logical qubits.
Today’s most advanced systems hold roughly 1,000 to 1,500 qubits, and a March 2026 Google Quantum AI paper cut that resource estimate by roughly 20-fold, narrowing but not closing the gap. Google has set itself an internal 2029 migration deadline; outside estimates for a cryptographically relevant quantum computer range from the early 2030s to the late 2030s.
Bitcoin’s mining and ledger security are not considered vulnerable to quantum attacks. The main risk is to addresses with exposed public keys, such as older outputs and reused addresses, which could theoretically be compromised by a sufficiently powerful quantum computer.
Two competing Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs) address this.
Ethereum, by contrast, has run a dedicated Post-Quantum Security team since January 2026 and publishes its migration progress at pq.ethereum.org, highlighting a gap in institutional preparedness that has become a point of debate between the two largest blockchains.
Trump’s orders don’t change the technology timeline, but they increase pressure on Bitcoin to address post-quantum security as Washington accelerates quantum development efforts.
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