Crypto venture capital could increasingly shift toward quantum-resistant infrastructure as investors look beyond immediate blockchain applications and assess the long-term security of digital assets.
Utkarsh Ahuja, founder of Moon Pursuit Capital, believes quantum readiness will become a more important investment criterion heading into 2027. His view comes as global venture funding remains heavily concentrated in advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
KPMG’s latest Venture Pulse report found that venture-backed companies raised $227.4 billion across 8,440 deals in Q2 2026, making it the second-highest quarterly funding total on record. The figure was below Q1’s $332.9 billion, which was boosted by OpenAI’s massive $122 billion financing.
The United States accounted for approximately $144.9 billion of Q2 funding across 3,644 deals, or nearly 64% of global venture investment.
Quantum computing also continued to attract significant capital. Dutch quantum company QuantWare raised $178 million, Germany’s eleQtron secured $66 million, while Quantinuum raised $1.6 billion through a Nasdaq listing that valued the company at $17.6 billion.
Quantum Risk Could Become an Investment Theme Before the Threat Arrives
Ahuja argues that investors cannot wait until quantum computers become capable of breaking existing blockchain cryptography before preparing for the threat.
The timing of such a breakthrough remains uncertain. However, the infrastructure required to transition billions of dollars in digital assets to new cryptographic standards could take years.
“If upgrading a blockchain, moving billions of dollars in assets, changing wallet infrastructure, and coordinating users across a decentralized network could take years, then quantum readiness becomes relevant well before the technology reaches that threshold,” Ahuja said.
That could create opportunities for companies developing post-quantum cryptography, wallet migration systems, security infrastructure and upgradeable blockchain architecture.
For venture investors, the key question may therefore shift from When will quantum computers break blockchain security? to How easily can existing systems transition before that happens?
Ahuja said Moon Pursuit evaluates whether companies can adapt their infrastructure when cryptographic requirements change, particularly where large numbers of users, custodians and validators must coordinate upgrades.
AmericanFortress Represents a Practical Migration Bet
Moon Pursuit co-led an $8 million seed round for AmericanFortress, alongside SAVA Digital Asset Fund and 0G Labs.
The company is developing a security system designed to work with existing blockchain wallet infrastructure and has filed a patent covering quantum-resistant transaction signing.
Its proposed technology, known as ZK-PoSP, is designed to allow wallets to prove control of an existing seed without exposing the underlying seed itself.
The proposed system could potentially support addresses across Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana without requiring users to immediately transfer assets or replace their existing keys.
However, the technology remains under development. Implementing it at the blockchain level would require node upgrades, and the company’s technical documentation describes its post-quantum security claims as a proposal rather than a technology already proven against a functioning quantum attack.
For Moon Pursuit, the investment case extends beyond predicting when quantum computing will reach a critical threshold.
Ahuja said venture investors should focus on whether companies are solving commercially relevant problems today while positioning themselves for future technological changes.
“Separating scientific progress from an investable business model is going to be increasingly important.”
That distinction could become particularly important as quantum-focused startups compete for capital with companies working directly on AI, cybersecurity and blockchain infrastructure.
Crypto Funding Is Becoming More Selective
The broader crypto venture market remains considerably smaller than the overall technology funding market.
Galaxy Research estimated that crypto and blockchain startups raised approximately $4 billion across 355 deals in Q1 2026, representing a 50% decline in capital from the previous quarter.
Trading, exchanges, investing and lending companies accounted for around $2.6 billion, while infrastructure ranked second by deal count with 56 transactions. Privacy and security startups completed 22 deals.
Crypto-focused venture fundraising also remained challenging. Eight new crypto funds raised approximately $1.1 billion during the quarter, the lowest quarterly fund count since Q3 2020.
This increasingly selective environment could favor infrastructure companies that address clear institutional requirements rather than projects relying solely on speculative future demand.
Ahuja believes the boundaries between crypto, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and quantum computing are becoming increasingly blurred.
“We have spent years treating digital assets, AI, cybersecurity and quantum as fairly distinct investment categories, but some of the most interesting opportunities now sit between them.”
That convergence could direct more venture capital toward the infrastructure required to make digital assets secure and usable at institutional scale.
The Industry Is Already Preparing for Post-Quantum Security
The quantum-security discussion is no longer limited to venture capital.
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) finalized its first three post-quantum cryptography standards in August 2024 and encouraged organizations to begin transitioning rather than waiting for quantum computers capable of breaking current cryptographic systems.
NIST’s roadmap calls for quantum-vulnerable algorithms to be deprecated by 2030 and removed from its standards by 2035. These deadlines apply to federal cryptographic standards and do not directly require decentralized blockchain networks to upgrade.
The crypto industry has nevertheless begun preparing.
Strategy, BlackRock, Coinbase and several other companies created a Bitcoin security consortium in July with a combined commitment of $15 million over three years toward research and development addressing long-term Bitcoin security risks.
Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, Block, Blockstream, Fidelity Digital Assets and Galaxy are among the participating organizations.
Ethereum developers are also examining potential changes to the network’s cryptographic infrastructure. Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake said the future Ethereum layer 1 design is expected to move away from the Poseidon hash function toward established alternatives such as SHA-2 or BLAKE2s.
Meanwhile, institutional custody providers are testing post-quantum signing mechanisms. BitGo and Silence Laboratories conducted a post-quantum multi-party computation signing test using ML-DSA, a digital signature algorithm standardized by NIST.
What Quantum Readiness Could Mean for Crypto Investors
Quantum computing remains a long-term technological uncertainty rather than an immediate threat to most blockchain networks.
But that uncertainty may itself create an investment opportunity.
Blockchain networks cannot simply upgrade overnight when cryptographic standards become obsolete. Wallet infrastructure, exchanges, custodians, validators, applications and billions of dollars in assets may all need to migrate.
That makes upgradeability and migration efficiency increasingly important characteristics for crypto infrastructure.
For venture capital, the opportunity may therefore lie less in predicting the exact arrival date of a cryptographically relevant quantum computer and more in backing companies that can build commercially useful security infrastructure before that deadline arrives.
If quantum technology develops faster than expected, those companies could become critical infrastructure providers. If development takes longer, they can still build businesses around cybersecurity, cryptographic migration and institutional digital-asset protection.
The broader lesson is that the next generation of crypto infrastructure may be designed not only for today’s threats, but for risks that the industry cannot yet precisely measure.
Quantum readiness may not be an urgent requirement today. But for venture investors planning five to ten years ahead, waiting until it becomes urgent could already be too late.
