Monero Under Siege: The Qubic Mining Controversy Explained

We may be in the middle of one of the most significant cryptocurrency project beefs of our lifetime. Monero (XMR) is facing a serious threat that could completely “centralize” its consensus mechanism, leading to a breakdown in its core value proposition: privacy through decentralization.

$XMR is experiencing a sharp decrease in value over the last 24 hours, despite the overall market performing slightly bullish. The currency is down by nearly 9% in the last 24 hours, making it the worst-performing crypto out of the top 100 by market capitalization. 

At the same time, Qubic (QUBIC), a layer-1 blockchain that uses the innovative “Useful Proof of Work (uPOW)” consensus mechanism, is up by nearly 5% in the same period. And what is more interesting is that these two stories are somehow related. 

How It Started: The Qubic–Monero Entanglement

The crypto beef started in late July of 2025, when Sergey Ivancheglo (Come-from-Beyond), co-founder of IOTA and creator of QUBIC, began incentivizing Monero CPU mining through its own network.

Qubic’s consensus mechanism, Useful Proof of Work, is a clever and more ecological solution to wasteful cryptocurrency mining, promoting real-world tasks like training AI models or, in this case, mining $XMR — a notoriously CPU-friendly mining process. 

Here is the kicker, though: Qubic is immediately swapping the mined $XMR to USDT, using it to later buy $QUBIC and burn the token. By essentially using Monero as a stepping stone, Qubic’s mining pool became significantly more profitable to miners.

This led to a significant migration in hashpower as miners transitioned from Monero to Qubic. Furthermore, this has become so significant that Qubic’s mining pool now controls over 40% of Monero’s total hashrate. 

If it ever reaches above 50%, the project could completely take over Monero’s consensus mechanism, giving it the power to manipulate transaction ordering, double-spend coins, and even reject other miners’ blocks. 

For Monero, a project that is based upon the notion of decentralization, this development could threaten its entire existence. 

Why is QUBIC Doing This?

Known as a DAG supporter, Sergey Ivancheglo is likely looking to prove a point about the fragility of traditional blockchain systems. By using Qubic’s Useful Proof of Work system, the project is producing an economic demonstration that utility trumps ideology. Under that notion, the core concept of Monero and all other cryptocurrencies, decentralization, may crumble if miners are simply paid more to act against it.

However, Ivancheglo has been adamant on his Twitter profile that he is not trying to run Monero to the ground to prove a point. In fact, he positioned himself against continuing to go for 51% of Monero’s hashrate if $XMR dropped below $250.00. 

With that said, after the Qubic community ran a DAO vote, holders opted to continue their attempt to dominate 51% of Monero, no matter what price the altcoin reaches. During this afternoon, $XMR hit below the $250.00 margin for the first time in over three months. 

At the same time, Ivancheglo appears skeptical that Qubic’s mining community was solely responsible for the drop. Earlier today, the developer claimed that $XMR holders should stop giving in to “FUD”, alleging that the recent price dip was orchestrated by traders who had opened short positions. “Squeeze them and FUD will disappear,” he wrote on X. 

Needless to say, the Monero community hasn’t taken that venture kindly. Earlier in the week, Qubic’s mining pool was allegedly hit by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, causing its hashrate to drop from 2.6 GH/s to just 0.8 GH/s.

Sergey Ivancheglo publicly blamed the Monero community, specifically accusing XMRig developer Sergei Chernykh of orchestrating the attack. He claimed the attackers were leveraging a botnet built from Monero-mining malware, suggesting the cost of the attack was “zero” due to existing infrastructure. Chernykh publicly denied the accusations, stating that XMRig has never engaged in illegal activity and that there is no concrete evidence of a DDoS attack.

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