Well, this is a strange one. Monero’s blockchain went through a pretty significant reorganization on Sunday—something like 18 blocks got reversed. That wiped out around 117 transactions, which obviously has some people worried. I think it’s fair to say the community’s feeling a bit uneasy about what this means.
But here’s the weird part: while all this was happening, the price of Monero (XMR) didn’t really flinch. It actually went up more than 7% just hours later. That’s… not what you’d expect.
What Exactly Happened?
The reorg started early Sunday, UTC, and lasted about 43 minutes. It was caught by node operators who shared what they were seeing on social media. Looks like it was the group behind Qubic—a mining pool that’s been focusing on AI—that was responsible. They’d already done a smaller reorg last month. This time, they managed to get control of more than half the network’s hashrate.
Which is a problem. A big one.
Proof-of-work chains like Monero rely on being spread out. When one group gets this much power, they can basically rewrite recent history. And that’s exactly what happened.
Community Reaction and a Centralization Dilemma
Almost immediately, people started questioning whether Monero can still be trusted as a payment network. One well-known commentator, Vini Barbosa, said flat out that he’s stopping XMR payments until things are sorted.
There’s talk about using DNS checkpoints—where nodes pull block data from trusted servers—to prevent this from happening again. But that comes with its own trade-off: it makes the system more centralized. And after this, maybe that’s a trade-off some are willing to make.
Rucknium, a researcher who confirmed the attack, pointed out that Monero’s existing 10-block lock was simply overrun by an 18-block reorg. The safeguards in place weren’t enough.
What’s Next for Monero?
This isn’t the first time the community has looked at ways to prevent 51% attacks. Ideas have been floated—like changing how mining works or even borrowing solutions from other chains. But so far, nothing’s been put into practice.
Qubic still has a lot of influence. And until that changes, these threats might not go away.
Surprisingly, though, XMR’s price has held up pretty well since late July, all things considered. It’s only down about 6% despite the repeated attacks. Maybe traders are betting the community will figure it out. Or perhaps they’re just not paying attention to the tech side.
Either way, it feels like a critical moment. The sword of Damocles, as one security expert put it, is hanging overhead. What Monero does next could define it for a long time.
