Coinbase Preps Quantum-Proof Custody for $250B

Decrypt reported that Coinbase is engineering post-quantum custody safeguards designed to support a wide range of future signature schemes. The platform currently safeguards roughly $250 billion in assets for institutions like BlackRock.

Yehuda Lindell, Coinbase’s head of cryptography, explained that conventional MPC frameworks depend on distributed key fragments. Many post-quantum signature schemes, particularly hash-based ones, may lack the arithmetic structure needed for this key-splitting. This could make standard MPC unfeasible for Bitcoin.

Lindell stated that the firm is testing a backup design merging post-quantum threshold decryption with flexible Hardware Security Modules (HSMs). In this model, cryptographic secrets are secured via post-quantum encryption and only reconstructed within a physically protected HSM environment.

“It’s unlikely that there will be a single signing scheme that everybody will use,” Lindell said. “That means we have to be prepared and ready for the different outcomes on different blockchains.”

Lindell added that the company’s architecture is being designed to remain adaptable. Once complete, he said, “I will be able to say, ‘I can support anything.’”