Researchers Cut Quantum Resource Benchmark for Bitcoin, Ethereum Attack by Over Half

The headline number is less dramatic than it looks: the two benchmarks use different accounting methods, so the halving does not represent a like-for-like improvement in practical quantum capability. The more substantive point is that estimative work on the cryptographic operation central to such an attack is still being revised downward, which keeps the long-run question open rather than settled. Whether comparable accounting standards emerge across research groups is the thing to watch, since that, not any single figure, determines how seriously these benchmarks should be read.