# Kraken pauses Monero deposits following 51% attack

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/kraken-pause-monero-deposits-after-51-attack
Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Kraken-pauses-Monero-deposits-following-51percent-attack?index=0x68a1b0f35dcd4d7f245a49a5c019c668a82ca66db5ae1028b8b94fa47600d7764ba519cb
Submitted by misha on 2025-08-17 UTC, 4 upvotes, 0 comments

## Summary

Kraken has temporarily paused Monero (XMR) deposits because a single mining pool, Qubic, gained more than 50% of the network's hashing power. Kraken said the concentration of mining power poses a potential risk to network integrity. Qubic, a layer-1 AI-focused blockchain and mining pool, claimed on Monday that it controlled the majority of Monero's hashrate and reorganized six blocks, which Monero community members denied. Qubic spokespeople said on Tuesday that the pool reached 51% after a month-long confrontation, following a DDoS attack on August 4 that reduced its hashrate from 2.6 GH/s to 0.8 GH/s, according to Sergey Ivancheglo.

## Article

Crypto exchange Kraken has temporarily paused Monero (XMR) deposits due to the ongoing 51% attack against the privacy-focused blockchain, which has compromised the security of the network.

A 51% attack occurs when one mining pool controls more than 50% of a blockchain network’s total hashing power, giving it the ability to double-spend and reorder transactions on the ledger. The Kraken exchange wrote on Friday:

“As a security precaution, we have paused Monero deposits after detecting that a single mining pool has gained more than 50% of the network’s total hashing power. This concentration of mining power poses a potential risk to network integrity.”

Qubic, a layer-1 AI-focused blockchain and mining pool, claimed it controlled the majority of Monero’s hashrate on Monday and reorganized six blocks, prompting denials of the attack from the Monero community.

The Kraken exchange temporarily suspends XMR deposits. Source: Kraken

Monero is a major privacy-preserving protocol, and the 29th largest crypto by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap. The ongoing 51% attack on the network has sent shockwaves through the Monero community, triggering a wave of responses.

Related: Monero ‘economic attack’ receives strong community response

Single mining pool assumes control of the network

“After a month-long, high-stakes technical confrontation, Qubic reached 51% of Monero's hashrate dominance, successfully reorganizing the blockchain,” spokespeople for Qubic wrote on Tuesday.

The mining pool was initially rebuffed in its attempt at a takeover, falling to the protocol’s seventh-largest miner and was hit with an alleged denial-of-service attack (DDoS) on Aug. 4.

A DDoS attack floods a computer, network, or server with fake incoming traffic, clogging the system and preventing real traffic from coming through.

Qubic is now the number one Monero mining pool. Source: MiningPoolStats

The DDoS attack on Qubic sharply reduced the mining pool’s hashrate from 2.6 gigahashes per second (GH/s) to just 0.8 GH/s, according to Sergey Ivancheglo, the individual who claimed responsibility for the 51% attack.

However, the Qubic pool recovered its hashing power, eventually controlling a majority of the computing power on the Monero network.

“This event marks a pivotal moment in the crypto industry,” Qubic spokespeople continued, while highlighting the takeover of a $6 billion privacy protocol by a $300 million AI protocol.