In the third quarter of 2026, Bitcoin stands at a strange crossroads: on one side, the Bitcoin Bank Adoption Index published by Strategy rises to 34%, with Fidelity at 77%, JPMorgan at 47%, and BNY at 46%, as leading banks quietly integrate this asset and infrastructure into their own systems; on the other side, Coinbase, which holds about 5% of the total Bitcoin supply, released a post-quantum security technology blog and a position paper from its Quantum Advisory Committee on October 13, openly warning of the potential threat quantum computing poses to existing cryptography, suggesting that Bitcoin may have to undergo a slow and complex quantum resistance migration in the coming years. Within the same time frame, according to a single public source, the crypto market faced approximately $725 million in leveraged liquidations within 24 hours, resulting in around $588 million in long-position liquidations and about $137 million in short-position liquidations, affecting around 150,000 accounts, with about $167 million of the liquidations related to BTC, predominantly involving long positions. The acceleration of traditional finance embracing, underlying security anxieties, and short-term leverage cleaning converge in the same quarter, exposing the structural tensions in the evolution of Bitcoin from a "high-volatility speculative asset" to a "candidate for global financial infrastructure." The following analysis will disassemble this seemingly contradictory yet intertwined phase of evolution along three lines: institutional adoption paths, progress of quantum resistance preparation, and leverage trading cycles.

34% Bank Participation: Bitcoin Moves Forward

While the market is measuring "risk" with $725 million in liquidations, banks are rewriting Bitcoin's positioning with a different metric. The latest reading from the "Bitcoin Bank Adoption Index" released by Strategy in the third quarter of 2026 is 34%, which is not a price but a scoring system set around services like custody, trading, and lending: a higher score indicates that a bank is more willing to formally include Bitcoin and digital assets into its product lines and risk control frameworks. Fidelity's adoption rate reaches 77%, while JPMorgan Chase and BNY stand at 47% and 46% respectively. The advancements by leading institutions in custody and related services pull this asset, originally outside the banking system, into the familiar worlds of compliance and settlement.

However, 34% also reminds the market that this is still just a reading from an "early stage." Most banks are still observing, with only a few players like Fidelity pushing to the front lines of the index. Bitcoin's migration from a speculative asset to something "that can be recorded on balance sheets" is more about establishing direction rather than completing a result. As banks dig deeper into custody and trading operations, Bitcoin balances begin to map between two systems: one end includes asset items in annual reports, while the other end includes on-chain visible UTXOs and custody addresses. Institutions like Coinbase, which holds about 5% of the total Bitcoin supply, already stand at this junction—banks must either integrate these existing on-chain custody infrastructures or attempt to build similar capabilities themselves, thereby embedding Bitcoin deeper into the crack where traditional finance and on-chain worlds intersect.

Coinbase Sounds the Quantum Alarm

As banks hesitate over "whether to adopt Bitcoin," Coinbase, which already holds about 5% of the total Bitcoin supply, has raised its gaze to more distant threats. On October 13, 2026, Coinbase published a discussion on post-quantum security technology on its official blog, and on the same day, its Quantum Advisory Committee released a position paper explicitly stating: quantum computing poses a potential threat to the existing cryptographic systems of Bitcoin. The document does not hype an "imminent crisis" but emphasizes a risk of time misalignment—once quantum capabilities are truly sufficient to break current signature schemes, the window for Bitcoin to securely migrate on-chain may have already closed.

In the narrative of the position paper, the issues are far more complex than simply "switching to a stronger signature algorithm." For Bitcoin to complete a quantum-resistant upgrade, it may require adjustments to consensus rules, and the entire ecosystem must migrate from the current signature systems to new quantum-resistant systems, an entire process anticipated to "take years." During this period, the massive UTXO pool, limited block space, and verification costs for full nodes will intertwine with institutional custody's compliance needs and regular users' access thresholds. For Coinbase, which holds about 5% of the supply, this is not just a technical debate but a design for a massive asset migration that must eventually occur on-chain; post their sound of the quantum alarm, how Bitcoin will complete its plan design and community coordination before the threat becomes manifest is quietly emerging as a core issue that will affect the long-term safety boundaries of this asset.

$725 Million Liquidation: Long-Leveraged Positions Liquidated

At the same time institutions discuss quantum safety and design blueprints for asset migration over the next decade, a starkly different scenario has unfolded in the derivatives market over the past 24 hours. According to AiCoin, based on single public source data, the total value of liquidations across the crypto market reached approximately $725 million, including about $588 million in long-position liquidations and around $137 million in short-position liquidations, impacting approximately 154,689 accounts. Specifically for Bitcoin, this round of liquidations amounted to about $167 million, with approximately $114 million from long positions and around $53.12 million from short positions, also showing that long positions are the dominant participants. The immediate implication behind these numbers is that leveraged positions remain massive and highly concentrated on the same side; once the trend reverses, it leads to a "long squeeze" chain reaction of liquidations.

In the absence of sufficient evidence pointing to specific triggering factors, this $725 million appears more like a quantitative snapshot of structural risk: on one end is the rising bank adoption index and the discussions of custody giants concerning protocol-level security representing "long-term institutionalization"; on the other end is the collective liquidation of tens of thousands of accounts in a short cycle signifying "short-term speculation." Bitcoin's significant weight in this round of liquidations—amounting to approximately $167 million—indicates that even as it is being increasingly integrated into the asset allocation narratives of traditional institutions, its trading behavior on the futures and contract levels is still heavily influenced by high leverage and emotional trading, which itself reflects the risk profile that needs to be addressed within the current market structure.

Bank Enthusiasm, Quantum Anxiety, and Liquidation Intertwined

On one side is the “embrace” reflected in the rising index. Behind the 34% bank adoption reading are specific layouts from Fidelity at 77%, JPMorgan at 47%, and BNY at 46%, expanding at their own pace in custody, trading, and related services, pushing Bitcoin into narratives of compliant asset management and wealth allocation. On the other side, as a custodian of about 5% of Bitcoin's supply, Coinbase, on October 13, warned via its blog and the position paper from its Quantum Advisory Committee: for Bitcoin to complete its quantum resistance migration before quantum threats truly materialize, it must plan years in advance and potentially adjust consensus rules. These two long-term threads are driven by different forces: one by compliance departments and business committees, the other by developers, node operators, and researchers, with differing timelines, decision-making mechanisms, and incentive structures.

Situated between these two slow variables, reflecting back on the approximately $725 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours—according to AiCoin, including about $588 million in long liquidations and $137 million in shorts, affecting over 150,000 accounts, and approximately $167 million related to BTC with long positions dominating—represents a distinctly different narrative: institutions and custodians are paving the way, protocol layers are discussing how to rewrite crypto fundamentals, while high-leverage players are frequently experiencing dramatic reversals in profits and losses within their futures and contracts positions. As banks' custody and trading entries broaden, with Bitcoin gradually being packaged into products and balance sheets, the quantum resistance migration still resides at the technical document and community discussion stage, creating a dissonance in the Bitcoin ecosystem among “business expansion—protocol evolution—high-leverage trading” timelines that amplifies the recognition of systemic risk: some are concerned about the next major liquidation, others about the next hard fork, and still others focus on the following quarterly report.

Bitcoin Moves Towards Infrastructure

The bank adoption index rises to 34%, Coinbase issues a quantum security alert on October 13, and approximately $725 million in liquidations occurs within the past 24 hours—these three events piece together the current snapshot of Bitcoin: on one side, it is being absorbed by mainstream finance; on the other, it is being demanded to rewrite its security foundations, while at the same time being repeatedly muted by high leverage. From Fidelity's 77%, JPMorgan's 47%, and BNY's 46% readings, to Coinbase custodian of roughly 5% of Bitcoin supply, Bitcoin is increasingly bound to bank reports and compliant custody, yet the Strategy index remains at 34%, indicating a substantial gap from "full adoption." Meanwhile, the Coinbase Quantum Advisory Committee warns that for the migration from the existing signature system to a quantum resistance system to be completed before quantum threats become evident, significant time may need to be reserved in "years," suggesting that if Bitcoin is to play the long-term role of financial infrastructure, it must advance slow and costly protocol upgrade discussions outside the noisy market trends. The total liquidation of $725 million, with approximately $167 million related to BTC, is merely a snapshot of leveraged liquidations under a single time window; whether it will frequently recur in the future remains uncertain but continues to reshape market intuitions about risk. The key variables to watch closely moving forward are whether the bank adoption index can continue to rise steadily from 34%, whether the Bitcoin community can converge on executable consensus regarding quantum resistance upgrade paths and timelines, and whether the proportion of leverage products in the next cycle will be redesigned along with risk control rules; under the premise that the index compilation methods and the causes of this round of liquidations remain less than fully transparent, we can only acknowledge that short-term liquidations and price shocks are unavoidable. What will genuinely determine whether Bitcoin can traverse multiple economic cycles and become a financial infrastructure will be the longer timelines of institutional adoption curves and the evolution of underlying security.

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