Bitcoin’s long-term design came under renewed scrutiny on Friday after VanEck CEO Jan van Eck questioned whether the network provides enough encryption and privacy during an appearance on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” show with host Brian Sullivan.
Van Eck said the issues drawing attention within the Bitcoin community go beyond short-term market swings. “There is something else going on within the Bitcoin community that non-crypto people need to know,” he said.
He added that VanEck evaluates Bitcoin’s staying power in the same way he evaluates traditional assets. “Ultimately, VanEck existed before Bitcoin. We will move away from Bitcoin if we believe the thesis is fundamentally broken. It is not at this time, but you always have to look at the underlying technology and cryptography.”
He didn’t define what he meant by “the Bitcoin thesis,” but his comments pointed to the fundamentals supporting Bitcoin’s long-term viability, including the strength of its cryptography, the network’s readiness for advances in quantum computing, and whether its privacy model aligns with user expectations. His comments focused on whether Bitcoin has “enough encryption” and “enough privacy,” which he said were now central issues for parts of the Bitcoin community.
Van Eck also said that some long-time Bitcoin holders and self-described maxis have begun to examine Zcash, calling it “something related to Bitcoin with a lot more privacy.” He argued that Bitcoin’s transparent ledger may clash with growing expectations around the confidentiality of transactions. “When you move money on the Bitcoin blockchain, you can see it,” he said. “You can see it going from one wallet to another.”
Following the interview, van Eck posted a summary on He also expanded on VanEck portfolio manager Pranav Kanade’s guidance for “dollar-cost averaging in bear markets.”
Bitcoin was trading around $84,643 during the CNBC interview. At 9:15 am UTC on Sunday, November 23, the price was $86,204, up 2.4% over the past 24 hours, but down 7.7% year-to-date and 31.6% below its all-time high of $126,080 on October 6, 2025.
Industry reaction
Some voices in the broader cryptography and research community echoed van Eck’s concerns.
On November 17, during a presentation on the Ethereum roadmap at the Devconnect conference in Argentina, Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin warned that quantum computing could threaten elliptic curve cryptography, stating: “Elliptic curves are going to die.”
Separately, in a Nov. 13 blog post, quantum computing researcher Scott Aaronson, Schlumberger Centennial Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote that “given the current staggering rate of hardware progress,” it is “a real possibility” that a fault-tolerant quantum computer capable of running Shor’s algorithm could be built before the next U.S. presidential election in 2028.
Others reacted strongly against van Eck’s comments. For example, Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3 and an early Bitcoin proponent, rejected the idea that Bitcoin maxis are turning to privacy alternatives. In a post on
Zcash’s ZEC token has surged as privacy discussions intensify. ZEC is now the 13th most valuable cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $9.43 billion and was recently trading at $578.35, up 17.3% in the last 24 hours, 121.3% in the last 30 days, and 930% so far this year. On September 24, ZEC was trading near $55.06.
Read more: “Inside Zcash: encrypted money on a planetary scale”
Van Eck’s comments, along with the broader debate over encryption, privacy and quantum readiness, suggest that the conversation about Bitcoin’s long-term architecture is likely to intensify as the market heads toward 2026 and traders reassess the halving’s role in the current downturn.
