Eric Lu, researcher at Cognition, factored the RSA-260 challenge number (862-bit key) on September 3, 2026 using GPU-accelerated general number field sieve methods, at a cost of roughly $400,000. Projections now estimate the computational expense of factoring an RSA-1024 key at around $30 million, a sum within reach of nation-states and well-resourced intelligence agencies, confirming that RSA-1024 deprecation was not merely precautionary. The RSA-2048 standard, currently in widespread use, remains secure against both current classical attacks and known quantum approaches. The practical impact on crypto infrastructure is close to zero, as Bitcoin uses elliptic curve cryptography whose mathematical foundations differ from RSA factoring.
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