IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) has published a research paper describing a fault-tolerant resource estimate for running Shor's algorithm on a trapped-ion quantum computer, according to a company statement.

The paper estimates that a quantum computer with 19,397 physical qubits could solve the 256-bit elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem on secp256k1, the cryptographic standard used by Bitcoin and other blockchain technologies, in approximately 25.7 days. The calculation would require 1,457 logical qubits and 39 million Toffoli gates at the logical level.

The company states this is the first end-to-end resource estimate fully mapped to underlying quantum error correction codes and circuits, rather than relying on approximations. IonQ used its Walking Cat architecture, which it published in April 2026, as the hardware foundation for the estimate.

IonQ said no deployed digital asset or cryptographic platform was affected during the research. The company followed responsible disclosure practices, sharing advance copies of the work with U.S. government and industry partners before publication.

"This is the first time anyone has taken a utility-scale quantum algorithm and estimated its cost without approximating away the parts that usually dominate a real machine's runtime," said Chris Ballance, President of Quantum Computing at IonQ.

The company noted that the cryptographic exposure described relates to authentication and integrity rather than confidentiality, affecting code signing, certificate hierarchies, and device identity. IonQ identified SLH-DSA and ML-DSA as existing standardized alternatives unaffected by this class of attack.

IonQ's roadmap targets systems with the relevant capabilities in the 2028 timeframe. The company said it plans to produce a fault-tolerant 10,000-physical-qubit system in 2027. The full paper is titled "Computing 256-bit elliptic curve discrete logarithms in 26 days on a fault-tolerant trapped-ion quantum computer with 20,000 qubits."