Post-Quantum Cryptography Becomes a Regulated Market

Post-quantum cryptography is emerging as the first quantum-related market shaped less by speculative technological adoption than by formal regulatory pressure. Unlike quantum computing, sensing or communications, whose commercial trajectories still depend on performance thresholds, procurement cycles and uncertain adoption curves, PQC migration is already being structured by standards, public-sector inventories, agency deadlines and procurement guidance. The strategic issue is therefore not whether quantum computers are commercially useful today, but whether governments, critical infrastructures and regulated enterprises can continue to rely on cryptographic systems that may be vulnerable to future quantum attacks. This turns PQC into a defensive infrastructure market: demand is created by the need to identify vulnerable cryptography, protect long-lived data, update certificates and protocols, replace incompatible systems, and demonstrate compliance with emerging national and international transition frameworks.