If your goal is to simply "break" bitcoin, then you don't even need to crack the cryptography. Skip Navigation. And to drive that point home, back in Universal Quantum calculated that in order to break RSA encryption - commonly used by email providers and banks - an ion quantum computer would need to be m2 — roughly the size of a football pitch. Any secure system is only as secure as its weakest point, as were were reminded by the very recent Wormhole crypto hack. But to crack Bitcoin in a hour window, the team calculated it would require a quantum computer with 13 million qubits - 1million times bigger than Eagle - rising to 1. That's not the only step, but the ensuing arms race would make BTC virtually untradeable within a few months. US Edition. Be In the Know Get instant access to breaking news, in-depth reviews and helpful tips. Your Email Get it! This surpasses Google and the University of Science and Technology in China and is theoretically more powerful than all the supercomputers on the planet combined.