BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) saw a significant 5.3% drop on Monday, marking its largest single-day decline since early August. This downturn occurred as the cryptocurrency market cooled off and fears about the impact of quantum computing on Bitcoin’s security began to spread across social media.

IBIT’s price fell to $54.73, while Bitcoin itself dropped more than 4%, falling below $94,300. This decline was exacerbated by the liquidation of overleveraged altcoin positions, contributing to wider market losses. Although pullbacks are typical in bull markets, this particular drop was noteworthy because it coincided with Google’s announcement of its Willow quantum computing chip. Willow is capable of solving in just five minutes a problem that would take the fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years, sparking fears that it could eventually crack Bitcoin’s cryptographic protection.

Concerns began circulating on platforms like X, where users speculated that Willow’s 105 qubits could potentially break Bitcoin’s SHA-256 algorithm. In traditional computing, a bit can only exist as a 0 or a 1, but a qubit can represent both simultaneously, providing a quantum computer with exponentially greater processing power.

However, experts have dismissed these concerns as premature, pointing out that Willow’s 105 qubits are not nearly enough to threaten Bitcoin’s security. “105 qubits is a great milestone for quantum experiments but nowhere near the 1 million qubits experts estimate would be necessary to crack Bitcoin’s encryption,” said tech analyst Cinemad Producer on X.

Further research from Universal Quantum, linked with the University of Sussex, indicated that a quantum computer with 1.9 billion qubits would be needed to breach Bitcoin’s cryptographic defenses, much more than Willow’s capabilities.

While these quantum concerns seem unfounded, the market’s response may have already set the tone for further declines. The technical charts for IBIT show a bearish divergence after its recent highs, signaling that the bullish momentum is fading. Monday’s decline confirmed this shift, suggesting potential deeper losses. The next support level for IBIT stands at $51.54, the low reached on November 26. To break the bearish trend, IBIT would need to surpass $59.16.