Bitcoin slips below $83,000 as Ethereum researcher's 'bunker mode' call divides crypto
- Bitcoin dipped to about $82,300 before recovering to around $82,800, roughly 4% below Tuesday's high near $86,600.
- Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake urged the industry to prepare for "bunker mode" in case AI-driven math breaks wallet cryptography, while Vitalik Buterin said the risk is real, but holders shouldn't scramble.
- The 30-year Treasury yield rose to 5.71% ahead of a $22 billion auction, after Fed minutes showed most officials expect another interest-rate increase by year-end.
Bitcoin BTC$82,711.65 extended its slide during Asian hours, dipping to about $82,300 before recovering to around $82,800, roughly 4% below Tuesday's high near $86,600. The CoinDesk 100 has lost close to 2% over 24 hours.
Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake used a post on X, viewed almost 4 million times, to urge the industry to begin planning for what he called "bunker mode."
The idea is a gradual migration of funds to new addresses whose public keys have never been exposed. Drake argued that AI-driven advances in mathematics make it reasonable to brace for a break of the elliptic-curve signatures securing bitcoin and ether wallets in "months not years." He pointed to a batch of 722 mathematical results released by OpenAI this week as evidence.
Not everyone agreed on the urgency. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the risk from AI-accelerated math should be taken seriously, but advised holders against scrambling to move funds. Samson Mow, CEO of bitcoin technology firm Jan3, told followers there was no need to panic "because an Ethereum researcher is saying silly things."