Monero Under Siege: Qubic Executes 51% Attack in Stunning Network Takeover
Monero's privacy fortress crumbles as Qubic pulls off a brazen 51% attack—proving even crypto's most hardened chains aren't bulletproof.
How did it happen? The attacker reportedly gained majority hashpower control, allowing double-spends and chain reorganization. No small feat for a network that's touted its security for years.
Why it matters: This isn't just about stolen XMR—it's a wake-up call for privacy coins facing increasingly sophisticated adversaries. Meanwhile, TradFi bankers are probably sipping martinis while watching crypto eat its own tail... again.
Qubic’s 51% Attack on Monero (Source: Evilcos/X)
Guillemet estimated the operation costs around $75 million per day but noted it could still be profitable, at least in the short term.
The Ledger CTO concluded that the attack had allowed a smaller chain to overtake a top 30 crypto tokens. He wrote:
“In effect, a $300 million market-cap chain is taking over a $6 billion one. Monero’s options for recovery are limited, and a full takeover is now possible and even likely.”
However, CFB claimed that the takeover of the privacy-focused network was designed to prepare it against future attacks of such nature.
According to him:
“The Monero team is polishing details of their 51% attack protection. Many accused us of being sponsored by 3-letter agencies to attack this anon coin. What do you think now, after we has helped Monero to prepare for its future fights against those agencies.”
Following the news, Monero’s XMR token fell by more than 13% to $247 as of press time, according to CryptoSlate’s data.
How Qubic gained control of Monero
Qubic’s strategy revolved around an incentive-driven “pay-to-switch” mining campaign.
By offering significantly higher payouts than regular Monero mining pools, the Monero mining pool attracted enough participants to surpass the 51% threshold.
Data from Chaos Labs shows Monero’s hash rate climbing to 3.01 GH/s as miners chased rewards of $3.13 per day compared to $0.64 from standard pools. Over the past 30 days, Qubic’s activity contributed to a 28% drop in XMR’s price, while QUBIC tokens surged 57%.
Meanwhile, Qubic’s model also involves distributing half its mining profits to participating miners and using the other half to purchase and burn QUBIC tokens.
So, if the project mines 100% of Monero’s daily blocks, it yields around 432 XMR, worth approximately $118,000 at current prices, with $59,000 burned daily.
