{"investigation":{"slug":"qubic","entity_name":"Qubic","trust_score":32,"severity_base":null,"score_modifier":0,"confidence":0.75,"status":"published","content_type":"investigation","summary":"Qubic is a layer-1 blockchain project founded by IOTA co-founder Sergey Ivancheglo ('Come-from-Beyond'). On October 18, 2026, Qubic's validators (Computors) froze the network after an attacker exploited weakly generated wallet seeds to drain roughly $1.3-1.4 million in QU tokens from over 1,400 wallets; the chain remained halted as of the most recent reporting, pending a validator vote on restitution. The project was already a subject of controversy in 2025 over disputed claims that its mining pool had seized majority control of the Monero network's hashrate.","sections":[{"content":"On October 18, 2026, Qubic's network validators, known as Computors, halted the chain at tick 85,371,949 after an attacker drained approximately 2.94 trillion QU tokens (reported at roughly $1.3 million to $1.4 million depending on the price used) from 1,404 wallets. According to Qubic's own account, the unauthorized transfers occurred over a short window between 23:42 UTC on Saturday, October 17 and 01:26 UTC on Sunday, October 18, 2026 -- roughly 104 minutes. Qubic stated that the flaw sat in the tool used to create wallet seeds rather than in the blockchain protocol itself. As of the most recent reporting, the network remained halted with no restart date announced, and QUBIC's token price fell more than 10% following the incident.","heading":"October 2026 Wallet Seed Exploit and Network Halt","sources":[{"url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/qubic-freezes-chain-after-attacker-drains-14k-wallets-with-weak-seeds","name":"Cointelegraph: Qubic freezes chain after attacker drains 14K wallets with weak seeds","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://news.bitcoin.com/qubic-loses-1-3-million-in-wallet-raid-before-network-halts","name":"Bitcoin.com News: Qubic loses $1.3 million in wallet raid before network halts","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://investinglive.com/cryptocurrency/crypto-qubic-halts-network-after-weak-wallet-seeds-let-attacker-drain-1-404-wallets/","name":"InvestingLive: Qubic halts network after weak wallet seeds let attacker drain 1,404 wallets","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"critical"},{"content":"Qubic attributed the theft to the use of JavaScript's Math.random() function when generating 55-character wallet seeds. Math.random() is not a cryptographically secure random number generator, and reporting indicates its output was predictable enough for an attacker to reconstruct private keys without brute-forcing them. Affected wallets were those with seeds generated via any browser on an iPhone or iPad, via Safari on a Mac prior to October 18, 2026, or via the Qubic iOS application prior to July 2025. Qubic said it corrected the flaw in version 4.26.4 of its web wallet, replacing Math.random() with the cryptographically secure crypto.getRandomValues() function, per a GitHub commit cited in reporting. One outlet cautioned that recovery phrases generated before the fix may remain unsafe even after the patch, since the underlying seed value itself -- not just the generation process -- was compromised for affected wallets.","heading":"Root Cause: Weak Random Number Generation in Wallet Seeds","sources":[{"url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/qubic-freezes-chain-after-attacker-drains-14k-wallets-with-weak-seeds","name":"Cointelegraph: Qubic freezes chain after attacker drains 14K wallets with weak seeds","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://news.bitcoin.com/qubic-loses-1-3-million-in-wallet-raid-before-network-halts","name":"Bitcoin.com News: Qubic loses $1.3 million in wallet raid before network halts","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"critical"},{"content":"Qubic stated that approximately 87.1% of the drained funds never left the Qubic network and remained frozen in place as a result of the chain halt. The remaining 12.9% (reported as roughly 379.26 billion QU tokens) was transferred to the exchange MEXC, which froze the receiving account within approximately one hour, according to Qubic. Exchanges including MEXC and Bitget suspended QUBIC token deposits and withdrawals following the incident; Bitget cited maintenance. QEARN staking positions were reportedly unaffected by the exploit. Qubic's core team said it was identifying affected wallets and preparing recovery options to be put to a vote of the network's Computor validators, who will decide the fate of the frozen funds and any restitution to victims. As of the most recent reporting, no restart date for the network had been announced and no full technical report had been published.","heading":"Fund Recovery, Exchange Response, and Network Status","sources":[{"url":"https://news.bitcoin.com/qubic-loses-1-3-million-in-wallet-raid-before-network-halts","name":"Bitcoin.com News: Qubic loses $1.3 million in wallet raid before network halts","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://investinglive.com/cryptocurrency/crypto-qubic-halts-network-after-weak-wallet-seeds-let-attacker-drain-1-404-wallets/","name":"InvestingLive: Qubic halts network after weak wallet seeds let attacker drain 1,404 wallets","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/qubic-freezes-chain-after-attacker-drains-14k-wallets-with-weak-seeds","name":"Cointelegraph: Qubic freezes chain after attacker drains 14K wallets with weak seeds","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"high"},{"content":"Prior to the 2026 wallet exploit, Qubic was the subject of significant controversy over its mining operations on the Monero network. According to The Block, Qubic's share of Monero's global hashrate rose from under 2% in mid-May 2025 to above 25% by late July 2025. Qubic founder Sergey Ivancheglo announced a plan to demonstrate majority ('51%') control of Monero's hashrate between August 2 and August 31, 2025, describing it as an 'economic demo' of Qubic's technology, while warning it could disrupt the network by rejecting blocks mined by other pools. Qubic subsequently said it had achieved 51% control, an event that coincided with a six-block-deep chain reorganization on Monero that discarded dozens of previously valid blocks. Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet characterized the episode as a successful 51% attack. However, independent researchers disputed the scale of Qubic's claims: SeraiDEX lead developer Luke Parker argued that a six-block reorganization does not establish that a genuine 51% attack occurred, and noted that Qubic had excluded its pool data from public mining analytics, making the claim difficult to verify independently. A report by the RIAT Institute described the episode as a staged media stunt. Kraken temporarily suspended Monero deposits in response to the security concerns raised. Qubic later attributed a subsequent drop in its hashrate to a DDoS attack it blamed on Monero-aligned actors, and Ivancheglo publicly accused XMRig developer Sergei Chernykh of involvement; Chernykh denied the accusation and characterized it as defamatory. This history is relevant to assessing Qubic's broader risk profile, as it indicates a pattern of the project's leadership pursuing high-risk, publicly contested actions against other networks, alongside unverified public claims about the scale of those actions.","heading":"2025 Monero Hashrate Controversy","sources":[{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/366535/monero-faces-chain-reorganization-fears-after-qubic-says-it-controls-51-of-hashrate","name":"The Block: Monero faces chain reorganization fears after Qubic says it controls 51% of hashrate","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/364496/qubics-monero-hashrate-controversy","name":"The Block: Qubic's bid for 51% of Monero's hashrate sparks controversy","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/monero-qubic-selfish-mining-51-percent-attack","name":"Cointelegraph: Monero Qubic selfish mining 51 percent attack","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"high"}],"timeline":[{"date":"2025-05","event":"Qubic's share of Monero's global mining hashrate began rising sharply, from under 2% in mid-May toward over 25% by late July 2025.","source":"The Block","source_url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/366535/monero-faces-chain-reorganization-fears-after-qubic-says-it-controls-51-of-hashrate"},{"date":"2025-07","event":"The insecure random-seed-generation vulnerability later blamed for the October 2026 exploit affected the Qubic iOS app's wallet seed creation prior to this point, per Qubic's later disclosure.","source":"Cointelegraph","source_url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/qubic-freezes-chain-after-attacker-drains-14k-wallets-with-weak-seeds"},{"date":"2025-08","event":"Qubic founder Sergey Ivancheglo announced a plan to demonstrate majority control of Monero's hashrate between August 2 and August 31; Qubic later claimed to have reached 51%, coinciding with a disputed six-block Monero chain reorganization.","source":"The Block","source_url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/366535/monero-faces-chain-reorganization-fears-after-qubic-says-it-controls-51-of-hashrate"},{"date":"2026-10","event":"An attacker drained approximately 2.94 trillion QU (roughly $1.3-1.4 million) from 1,404 wallets over about 104 minutes, exploiting weakly generated wallet seeds.","source":"Bitcoin.com News","source_url":"https://news.bitcoin.com/qubic-loses-1-3-million-in-wallet-raid-before-network-halts","date_evidence":"Qubic reported that the unauthorized transfers occurred between 23:42 UTC Saturday and 01:26 UTC Sunday.","date_original":"2026-10-18"},{"date":"2026-10","event":"Qubic's Computor validators halted the network at tick 85,371,949 in response to the exploit.","source":"InvestingLive","source_url":"https://investinglive.com/cryptocurrency/crypto-qubic-halts-network-after-weak-wallet-seeds-let-attacker-drain-1-404-wallets/","date_original":"2026-10-18"},{"date":"2026-10","event":"Exchanges including MEXC and Bitget suspended QUBIC deposits and withdrawals; MEXC froze the account that received roughly 12.9% of the stolen funds within about an hour.","source":"Bitcoin.com News","source_url":"https://news.bitcoin.com/qubic-loses-1-3-million-in-wallet-raid-before-network-halts","date_original":"2026-10-18"},{"date":"2026-10","event":"Qubic released web wallet version 4.26.4, replacing JavaScript's Math.random() with the cryptographically secure crypto.getRandomValues() for seed generation.","source":"Cointelegraph","source_url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/qubic-freezes-chain-after-attacker-drains-14k-wallets-with-weak-seeds"},{"date":"2026-10","event":"Media reporting on the halt and exploit was published; Qubic's network remained halted with no restart date announced and a Computor vote on fund recovery still pending.","source":"Cointelegraph","source_url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/qubic-freezes-chain-after-attacker-drains-14k-wallets-with-weak-seeds","date_original":"2026-10-19"}],"sources_used":[{"url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/qubic-freezes-chain-after-attacker-drains-14k-wallets-with-weak-seeds","name":"Cointelegraph: Qubic freezes chain after attacker drains 14K wallets with weak seeds","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20261022202138/https://cointelegraph.com/news/qubic-freezes-chain-after-attacker-drains-14k-wallets-with-weak-seeds","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-10-22T20:21:38+00:00"},{"url":"https://news.bitcoin.com/qubic-loses-1-3-million-in-wallet-raid-before-network-halts","name":"Bitcoin.com News: Qubic loses $1.3 million in wallet raid before network halts","type":"news_article","archive_url":null,"credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://investinglive.com/cryptocurrency/crypto-qubic-halts-network-after-weak-wallet-seeds-let-attacker-drain-1-404-wallets/","name":"InvestingLive: Qubic halts network after weak wallet seeds let attacker drain 1,404 wallets","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20261022202234/https://investinglive.com/cryptocurrency/crypto-qubic-halts-network-after-weak-wallet-seeds-let-attacker-drain-1-404-wallets/","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-10-22T20:22:34+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/366535/monero-faces-chain-reorganization-fears-after-qubic-says-it-controls-51-of-hashrate","name":"The Block: Monero faces chain reorganization fears after Qubic says it controls 51% of hashrate","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260802002355/https://www.theblock.co/post/366535/monero-faces-chain-reorganization-fears-after-qubic-says-it-controls-51-of-hashrate","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-08-02T00:23:55+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/364496/qubics-monero-hashrate-controversy","name":"The Block: Qubic's bid for 51% of Monero's hashrate sparks controversy","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20251117052605/https://www.theblock.co/post/364496/qubics-monero-hashrate-controversy","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2025-11-17T05:26:05+00:00"},{"url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/monero-qubic-selfish-mining-51-percent-attack","name":"Cointelegraph: Monero Qubic selfish mining 51 percent attack","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20261022202114/https://cointelegraph.com/news/monero-qubic-selfish-mining-51-percent-attack","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-10-22T20:21:14+00:00"}],"source_tags":[],"addresses":[],"reviewed":false,"reviewed_by":null,"model_used":"claude-code-investigator","created_at":"2026-10-22T20:14:13.823871+00:00","updated_at":"2026-10-23T01:10:59.268202+00:00"},"source_quality":{"total":6,"tier1":0,"tier2":4,"tier3":0,"unrated":2},"follower_count":null,"content_updated_at":"2026-10-22T20:14:14.326Z","last_fact_checked_at":null,"fact_check_next_allowed_at":null,"update_next_allowed_at":null}