Qubic, a decentralized AI computing network, paused its mainnet on October 18, 2026, after an attacker drained 1,404 user wallets. The haul came to approximately 2.94 trillion QU tokens, worth approximately $1.3 million at the time.
According to Qubic’s developers, the exploit was not a bug in the network’s code. It traced back to weak, predictable wallet seeds created on legacy Apple devices, Safari browsers, and early iOS applications.
A 104-minute raid, then a hard stop
The attack ran from 23:42 UTC on October 17 to 01:26 UTC on October 18. That is about 1 hour and 44 minutes, enough time to clear out more than a thousand wallets.
Validators then stopped the chain at tick 85,371,949. A tick is Qubic’s unit of network progress, roughly comparable to a block on other chains. Halting at that point locked the ledger in place.
About 87.1% of the drained QU never left the Qubic network and is now immobilized on-chain, unable to be moved or sold.
The remaining 12.9% made it to MEXC. The exchange froze the receiving account within 1 hour on suspicion that it was linked to the attack.
Bitget took a separate precaution, suspending all QUBIC deposits and withdrawals while the situation played out.
Qubic’s team pushed out client version 4.26.4 to fix the seed-generation weakness. Developers said they also secured additional funds that were exposed to the same flaw before they could be taken.
QEARN, the network’s staking feature, was not affected by the incident.
Not the first peripheral breach this year
This is the second time in 2026 that Qubic has been hit through something adjacent to its core. In August 2026, the Vottun Bridge was exploited, exposing operational risks tied to the network’s outer components.
Qubic pitches itself on a no-premine, fee-less model built for running AI workloads with its native QU token. No premine means the team did not allocate itself tokens before launch. Fee-less means users do not pay per transaction.
What this means for QU holders and the wider ecosystem
The immediate question for victims is whether they get made whole. That decision sits with Qubic’s Computor cluster, the group of operators who run the network and vote on its direction.
Until the cluster decides, affected users are being told to file police reports, which suggests the formal paper trail could matter in any compensation process.
For traders, the Bitget suspension is the most practical near-term issue. Paused deposits and withdrawals limit how freely QU can move between the network and one of its trading venues.
Users who generated seeds on older Apple hardware, Safari, or early iOS wallet apps may want to think about where their keys came from. Any network relying on third-party wallet software inherits that software’s weaknesses.
What to watch next: the Computor cluster’s compensation vote, the timeline for Qubic’s mainnet restart on the patched 4.26.4 client, and when Bitget restores QUBIC deposits and withdrawals. How MEXC handles the frozen account will also signal how cooperative exchanges are willing to be in returning stolen funds.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.