France has reached a decisive milestone in the race for digital security. The National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI) has announced that it will cease certifying security products lacking encryption resistant to quantum computers starting in 2027. A decision that is shaking the technology — and crypto — industries.
? What ANSSI announced
It was during the France Quantum 2026 summit that Samih Souissi, chief of staff at ANSSI, made the news official: starting in 2027, the agency will no longer certify products that do not integrate post-quantum cryptography (PQC). By 2030, companies will have to purchase exclusively “quantum-safe” products.
This announcement is not a surprise for insiders. “ANSSI has been preparing this move for years,” commented Marin Ivezic, founder of the consulting firm Applied Quantum, on LinkedIn. “What changed yesterday is that the ANSSI chief of staff publicly stated that the date is now firm.”
ANSSI certification is an essential prerequisite for the use of security products within French government agencies and critical infrastructure operators. In short: any supplier wanting to work with the French state will have to demonstrate its ability to resist quantum attacks.
“This is not just a technical problem,” Souissi stated. “It is a matter of governance, industrial planning, regulation, and sovereignty.”
Source: Reuters, Cointelegraph
? A global movement: France and the United States hand in hand
The French decision is not an isolated move. It aligns remarkably with the timeline of the US NSA, which requires that all national security systems use its suite of quantum algorithms (CNSA 2.0) by 2027.
According to CNSA 2.0, all new systems must support the approved algorithms by January 1, 2027. Non-compliant systems must be phased out by the end of 2030, and by 2033, all systems must be fully migrated.
“Two of the most demanding certification authorities in the world, serving two of the largest defense and technology markets, have independently converged on the same deadline: 2027,” analyzes Marin Ivezic. “This is no coincidence.”
?? The impact on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies
The quantum threat is taken very seriously in the crypto industry. And the numbers are staggering.
According to analytics platform Glassnode, nearly 10% of Bitcoin’s total supply — approximately 1.92 million BTC (over $120 billion at current exchange rates) — is considered “structurally insecure” in the event of a quantum attack. This mainly involves bitcoins held in addresses using old and vulnerable signature formats (P2PK).
Last April, Coinbase warned that Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchains, including Ethereum and Solana, could be even more exposed to quantum risk due to the signature schemes used by validators to secure the network.
However, Coinbase also acknowledged that many blockchains have already begun preparing:
- Algorand has a progressive roadmap
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