Quick answer: In the Qubic hack, between 23:42 UTC on Oct. 17 and 01:26 UTC on Oct. 18, 2026, an attacker drained 1,404 Qubic wallets of about 2.94 trillion QU (roughly $1.3 million) by guessing seeds made with weak randomness on Apple devices, Qubic said. Computors halted the network and froze 87.1% of the funds on-chain.
The Qubic hack is a reminder that a wallet is only as strong as the randomness behind its seed. Between 23:42 UTC on Oct. 17 and 01:26 UTC on Oct. 18, 2026, an attacker drained 1,404 wallets of about 2.94 trillion QU, the network’s token, Qubic said on X.
That haul came to about $1.39 million at the CoinGecko price just before the drain and about $1.26 million by 16:54 UTC on Oct. 18. Notably, the attacker cannot spend most of it, because the network itself has stopped.
How did the Qubic hack happen?
According to Qubic, “some wallet seeds were generated with insufficient randomness”. As a result, the attacker could guess the private keys of affected wallets and sign transfers out of them. The team stressed that the bug sat in seed generation, not in the Qubic protocol.
In practice, the flaw hits only some seeds. Qubic lists three groups, made:
- on an iPhone or iPad, in any browser, before Oct. 18, 2026;
- on a Mac using Safari, before Oct. 18, 2026;
- in the Qubic iOS app, before July 2025.
Qubic has not yet said exactly which random-number routine failed. A full technical report “will follow once recovery is settled”, the team wrote.
Is the Qubic network still halted?
Yes. Qubic’s validators, called Computors, “coordinated a protective halt” at tick 85,371,949, so no transactions are processing. When CryptoVank queried Qubic’s public RPC at about 16:55 UTC on Oct. 18, it still reported that same tick, more than 15 hours after the drain ended.
Where did the stolen QU go?
Most of it never left. Qubic says 87.1% of the drained QU, about 2.56 trillion, is still sitting on-chain and frozen in place. The other 12.9%, roughly 379 billion QU, went to MEXC, which froze the receiving account within about an hour. Other exchanges have also suspended QUBIC deposits and withdrawals.
For scale, 2.94 trillion QU equals about 1.65% of the 178.25 trillion QU in circulation, based on Qubic’s own RPC stats. Meanwhile, the QUBIC price was down 10.4% over 24 hours at 16:54 UTC, per CoinGecko, even though nobody could move QU on-chain.
What should Qubic users do now?
First, check how your seed was made. If it falls into one of the three groups above, treat it as weak. Qubic says version 4.26.4 corrects seed generation, so the wallet can no longer create weak seeds. Once the network restarts, anyone holding an old Apple-made seed should create a fresh seed on the fixed version and move their QU.
Second, if you lost funds, Qubic asks victims to file a police or cybercrime report with the wallet ID, the amount and the transaction link from the Qubic explorer. Formal reports help exchanges keep the funds frozen.
Finally, watch for scams. Qubic says nobody from the team will message you first, ask for your seed or charge for “recovery”. Cysic also warned users about fake refund links after its bridge exploit this week.
What happens next for Qubic?
Any fix is up to the Computor quorum, the 676 validators that run Qubic. Qubic says its core team is identifying every affected identity and preparing options, while a community poll on Discord gauges opinion. The obvious question is whether the quorum will return the frozen QU to victims, a step most decentralized networks avoid.
Weak randomness has emptied wallets before. The Milk Sad flaw in Libbitcoin Explorer used a weak Mersenne Twister generator for seeds, and the Profanity vanity-address bug disclosed by 1inch in 2022 was later linked to a roughly $160 million loss at Wintermute. What is unusual here is the freeze. For context on how much was lost across crypto last quarter, see our Q3 crypto hacks report. For wider wallet hygiene, see our NGRAVE phishing explainer and our guide to checking a hardware wallet is genuine.
Qubic Hack FAQ
Was my Qubic wallet affected by the hack?
It may be at risk if your seed was created on an iPhone or iPad in any browser or on a Mac in Safari before Oct. 18, 2026, or in the Qubic iOS app before July 2025, Qubic said. Qubic did not list seeds made on other devices.
How much was stolen in the Qubic hack?
About 2.94 trillion QU from 1,404 wallets between 23:42 UTC on Oct. 17 and 01:26 UTC on Oct. 18, 2026. That came to roughly $1.3 million at CoinGecko prices, and 87.1% of it still sits frozen on-chain.
Why is the Qubic network halted?
Computors paused the chain at tick 85,371,949 so the drained funds could not be moved or sold. Qubic’s public RPC still showed that tick at about 16:55 UTC on Oct. 18, 2026.
Will Qubic hack victims get their QU back?
Not decided yet. Qubic says any resolution is a decision for the Computor quorum under network rules; the core team is preparing options and a community poll is open on Discord.
Sources
- Qubic on X: security incident update (Oct. 18, 2026)
- Qubic on X: which seeds are affected
- Qubic on X: network halt at tick 85,371,949
- Qubic on X: 87.1% frozen on-chain, 12.9% frozen at MEXC
- Qubic on X: seed generation fixed in version 4.26.4
- Qubic Explorer
- CoinGecko: QUBIC price data
- Milk Sad: weak entropy in Libbitcoin Explorer
- 1inch: Profanity vanity-address vulnerability (2022)
This article is for information only and is not financial or security advice. Details may change as Qubic investigates; DYOR and verify any instructions through official Qubic channels.
