Qubic Network Pauses After Wallet Exploit Drains 2.94T QU From 1,404 Wallets
Qubic said it paused network activity after an attacker drained about 2.94 trillion QU from 1,404 wallets in a security incident that unfolded over roughly 104 minutes. The exploit was linked to weak wallet seed generation rather than a failure in Qubic’s transaction-validation protocol.
Security incident update.
Between 23:42 UTC on 17 October and 01:26 UTC on 18 October, an attacker drained 1,404 Qubic wallets, totalling around 2.94 trillion QU.
Here is what happened, what has been done, and what comes next. pic.twitter.com/7aPJ26lEeZ
— Qubic (@_Qubic_) October 18, 2026
The reported drain took place between Oct. 17 and Oct. 18, with the attacker moving funds across a large number of wallets before the network halt was put in place. Qubic’s response reportedly involved Computors establishing a protective freeze at a specific network tick, limiting how far the stolen funds could move after the incident was detected.
Wallet seed weakness, not protocol failure
Qubic has said the problem came from insufficient randomness in wallet seed creation. Based on the project’s incident description cited in secondary coverage, the issue affected seeds generated before Oct. 18, 2026, as well as the Qubic iOS app up to July 2025 and Safari on Mac before the same date.
The project also said version 4.26.4 addresses the seed-generation issue, preventing weak seeds from being created in that release. That means the incident appears tied to wallet security rather than the underlying blockchain mechanics, though the network pause shows the operational impact was still significant.
Funds, freezes and unresolved recovery
Secondary reporting said most of the deleted QU remained stuck on the network after the halt, while a smaller portion reached the crypto exchange MEXC before the receiving wallet was frozen. Qubic also reportedly notified other exchanges to suspend deposits and withdrawals involving QU while the incident was being contained.
What happens to the affected funds is still unclear. The network pause may have slowed further movement of the stolen tokens, but it does not by itself settle whether or how users will be compensated. For now, the central facts are the scale of the drain, the number of affected wallets and Qubic’s decision to halt the chain while it works through the incident.
