Monero, the $6 billion privateness coin lengthy touted as one in every of crypto’s most censorship-resistant networks, has suffered a serious setback.
Key Takeaways:
- Qubic claims it gained 51% management of Monero’s hashrate after a month-long marketing campaign.
- The takeover coincided with a six-block chain reorganization that changed 60 blocks.
- Monero builders dispute {that a} full 51% assault occurred, whereas some safety consultants say the try seems to have succeeded.
A single mining entity, the Layer-1 blockchain Qubic, claims it seized 51% of Monero’s hashrate, a degree of management that in idea might rewrite the chain, double-spend transactions, or censor exercise — all for an estimated value of simply $100,000 per day.
The revelation got here from a latest publish by X consumer Pix, who summarized the incident as a textbook case of “too large to assault” being confirmed fallacious.
Qubic’s Month-Lengthy Push Triggers Monero Chain Reorg
In a weblog publish earlier this week, Qubic stated the takeover was the results of a month-long marketing campaign that culminated on Monday, coinciding with a six-block-deep chain reorganization that changed 60 beforehand legitimate blocks. The transfer briefly pushed Monero’s worth down round 7%.
A 51% assault happens when one get together controls the vast majority of a blockchain’s mining energy or stake, permitting them to change the chain’s historical past or block transactions.
In Monero’s case, Qubic had incentivized CPU miners to direct their energy towards XMR as a substitute of different cash, promising higher rewards by way of its community.
Founder Sergey Ivancheglo admitted the technique was designed to monopolize Monero’s mining, ultimately rejecting blocks from rival swimming pools.
Whereas Qubic says the occasion demonstrates it achieved full community management, Monero builders have pushed again.
Luke Parker, lead developer at SeraiDEX, argued that the six-block reorganization doesn’t definitively show a profitable 51% assault, solely that “an adversary with a excessive quantity of hash acquired fortunate.”
A 6 re-org doesn’t imply a '51% assault' was profitable. In that case, we'd see unbounded-depth re-orgs/no blocks mined by some other mining pool (assuming the adversary censors different mining swimming pools, as this one does).
It does imply an adversary with a excessive quantity of hash acquired fortunate.— Luke Parker (@kayabaNerve) August 12, 2025
Others aren’t so dismissive. Zhong Chenming, co-founder of cybersecurity agency SlowMist, stated the assault “appears to have succeeded,” warning that Qubic’s pool might now, in idea, rewrite the blockchain and censor any transaction.
The confrontation started in late June, when Qubic introduced it was redirecting its proof-of-work mannequin, usually used for AI-related duties, towards Monero mining.
The mined XMR would fund Qubic token buybacks and burns, making a direct financial incentive to overpower the community.
Monero Group Hits Again With Alleged DDoS on Qubic Mining Pool
Monero’s group shortly mobilized. In late July, members allegedly launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) assault towards Qubic’s mining pool, briefly dropping its hashrate from 2.6 gigahashes per second to 0.8 GH/s.
#Qubic pool hashrate peaked 2.6 GH/s earlier than #Monero DDoS assaults knocked it right down to 0.8 GH/s by making 2/3 of miners disconnect.
— Come-from-Past (@c___f___b) August 3, 2025
Nevertheless, by August, Qubic’s place appeared safe sufficient to set off the six-block reorg.
“In a transfer that has rewritten the principles of blockchain competitors, a $300 million market cap AI protocol has efficiently asserted its dominance over a $6 billion market cap privateness big,” Qubic wrote.
For now, Qubic says it has “paused” the takeover, claiming it selected to not push the assault additional.
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