Monero Jumps 7% After Blockchain Attack Shocks the Crypto Market

By Emir Abyazov

Monero, the privacy-focused cryptocurrency, shocked the market on Sunday as its price climbed more than 7% despite suffering its biggest blockchain attack just hours earlier.

The Qubic attack on Monero

The attack was carried out by Qubic, a layer-one AI-focused blockchain and mining pool that had recently gained control of more than 51% of Monero’s hashrate.

A lot of people were asking how #Qubic was planning to do sustained 51% domination over #Monero if 50% of Qubic mining time must be spent on #Aigarth tasks. First I was answering “Let’s make a surprise to $XMR miners”, but then I realized that the #cryptocurrency community would…

— Come-from-Beyond (@c___f___b) July 25, 2025

Between blocks 3,499,659 and 3,499,676, Qubic successfully reorganized 18 blocks and reversed around 117 transactions in just 43 minutes. According to reports from Monero node operators on X (formerly Twitter), this was the largest reorganization in the network’s history.

The breach was later confirmed by Rucknium, a Monero researcher, on GitHub.

Market response defies expectations

Typically, such a significant security incident would cause panic selling. Instead, Monero’s price initially held firm and later surged. Eight hours after the breach, XMR rose by 7.4%, climbing from $287.54 to $308.55, according to CoinCodex.

This defiance of market logic surprised analysts, especially as most of the broader crypto market was in decline at the time.

Debate on the future of Monero

The attack sparked heated debate within the crypto community. Some experts, including Vini Barbosa, announced they would stop accepting Monero until the situation is resolved.

Repeated reorganizations highlight the risk that proof-of-work blockchains face when they are not sufficiently decentralized. While temporary measures like DNS checkpoints could reduce risks, they come at the cost of centralization — a concern already raised as Qubic holds more than half of the network’s hashrate.

Security experts warn that without decisive action, Monero will remain vulnerable to future attacks. Yu Xian, founder of SlowMist, compared the threat to a “sword of Damocles” hanging over the network.

Old solutions still on the table

The Monero community has previously explored several security improvements, including:

• Updating the proof-of-work algorithm
• Enabling joint mining alongside Bitcoin and other coins
• Adopting ChainLocks, a system used by Dash to prevent reorganizations

So far, none of these solutions has been fully implemented, leaving Monero exposed to further manipulation.

Source:: Monero Jumps 7% After Blockchain Attack Shocks the Crypto Market