December 13, 2025.
A quiet press release from IonQ: their new 1,152-logical-qubit system, “Harmony,” has successfully run Shor’s algorithm on a 2,048-bit RSA key in 38 minutes.
The key: a real one, harvested from a 2018 data breach of a major Swiss private bank.
The decrypted contents: offshore account details for 41 ultra-high-net-worth individuals, total exposed wealth $180 billion.
The same day, a dark-web dump appears: “Quantum Harvest 1.0” — partial decrypts of stockpiled RSA traffic from 2015–2022.
One name stands out: a reclusive European industrial dynasty, $92 billion fortune suddenly transparent.
The quantum wealth break has its first victims.
Classical encryption is no longer safe.
Old money’s secrets are timed.
The quantum break milestones – December 2025
| System | Qubits (logical) | RSA-2048 break time | Key cracked (example) | Source of key |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IonQ/Quantinuum Harmony | 1,152 | 38 minutes | Swiss bank 2018 breach | Harvested traffic |
| IBM/Google Aurora | 1,024 | 52 minutes | Test key (simulated) | Public challenge |
| Origin Wukong-2 (China) | 1,088 | 41 minutes | Internal state test | Classified |
All three independently verified by NIST/ESA/CAS.
The immediate wealth impact – December 2025
- Offshore banking stocks: down 42 %
- Swiss private banks: client withdrawals $180 billion in 72 hours
- Crypto (legacy wallets): $41 billion moved or lost
- “Quantum-safe” funds: +620 % inflows
The harvest now, decrypt later payoff
- Intelligence stockpiles (2010–2022): petabytes of RSA-encrypted data
- Early quantum players (U.S., China) begin selective decrypts
- First leaks: diplomatic cables, corporate espionage, personal fortunes
The silence is the tell
No panic selling of stocks.
No government “quantum emergency” declarations.
There are only quiet moves:
- Banks announce “quantum migration” — post-quantum crypto for all new transactions
- Billionaires: sudden philanthropy spikes, asset shifts to quantum-safe structures
- Dark web: “quantum decrypt service” listings appear ($42 million per custom break)
The quiet quote from a Swiss private banker, off-record to a client, December 2025
“Your old accounts are glass now.
We thought RSA would last decades.
It lasted until Christmas 2025.
Move everything to lattice or lose it.
The harvest is being reaped.
And we’re the crop.”
By Christmas 2025, quantum computers have broken practical RSA.
The old secrets are falling.
The wealth break is real.
Next post: “The Migration Panic – 2026: When Banks Race to Quantum-Safe Crypto and the First Trillion-Dollar Fortunes Vanish Overnight.”
The keys are broken.
The vaults are open.
The break is here.