Ledger CTO: 51% Attack on Monero Network Alleged
Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet stated in a statement on the X platform that the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero was subjected to a successful 51% attack as of this morning.
Launched in 2014, Monero has long been a target of governments and law enforcement agencies around the world and has been mostly delisted from major centralized exchanges.
According to Guillemet, a mining pool called Qubic has been steadily increasing the network’s processing power (hash rate) for months, gaining a majority share today. A major blockchain reorganization event was detected this morning.
It was stated that with this power, Qubic could arbitrarily rewrite the blockchain, perform double-spend attacks, and censor any transactions it wanted.
The daily cost of sustaining such an attack is estimated to be around $75 million. Guillemet emphasized, however, that while the potential gains are substantial, such an attack would almost immediately undermine the Monero network’s foundation of trust, potentially leading other miners to lose their incentives and withdraw from the network.
Ledger’s CTO described the situation as “the $300 million Qubic chain taking over the $6 billion Monero chain.” According to Guillemet, Monero’s options are extremely limited, and the possibility of a complete collapse is not only possible, but inevitable.
*This is not investment advice.