Qubic's 51% Attack Success Rate Raises Doubts, XMR Price Rises

It was reported that after the Qubic pool launched the 51% attack, XMR fell to $233 on August 15 and then rebounded 4% to $276 on August 18.

On August 18, the privacy coin XMR rose about 4% to $276, just days after reports indicated that the Qubic pool had launched a 51% attack on Monero. Since the incident broke out, XMR had been on a downward trend, dropping to $233 on August 15 as multiple media outlets and experts reported the start of the attack.

In fact, reports have indicated that a certain mining pool controls more than half of Monero's hash power, leading exchanges like Kraken to suspend XMR deposits. However, about 72 hours later, the price of XMR rebounded to over $270, making it one of the few well-known altcoins trending upwards on August 18, while other cryptocurrencies were in a state of loss.

Some supporters of Monero attribute XMR's recovery to an emerging claim that Qubic has deliberately exaggerated its control over the hash rate. A cryptocurrency trader on X named Smart Degen stated that Qubic's actual control rate over Monero is 38%, not the 51% it claims. The Qubic pool has also been accused of falsely claiming its success in the 51% attack, 'with the aim of forcing miners to flock to their pool out of fear of losing profitability.'

However, some observers have noted that the entire controversy proves that even if Qubic possesses 35% of the hash power, Monero could become unstable.

Meanwhile, Smart Degen claims that the Qubic pool is facing strong opposition from the community, including 'massive miner boycotts of the pool and DDoS attacks on Qubic's infrastructure.'

Smart Degen stated in an article on August 17 that these countermeasures, along with the surge in P2P pool adoption and independent mining, led to Qubic's hash power share dropping from a claimed 51% to 30%. As of the writing of this article, the price of Qubic's tokens has fallen by 3%, which may suggest that investors are dissatisfied with the claims of a 51% attack.

Nevertheless, some supporters of Qubic insist that the attack has been successful, with as much as 73% of the hash power currently controlled by the Qubic pool. A cryptocurrency trader commented on Qubic's claimed success rate of the 51% attack:

This is a tremendous technical breakthrough! QUBIC's hash power has reached 4.1Gh/s, accounting for 73% of Monero's hash power. This means we have successfully controlled 51% of XMR's hash power, and all blocks will be completely mined by QUBIC. This showcases the power of human innovation. This is our first time witnessing this new technology, the first UPoW algorithm capable of solving real-world problems using mining power.