Qubic Restarts Network After $1.4M Theft, Opens Claims

Qubic recovery moves affected funds into escrow

The original October 18 incident disclosure identified 1,404 drained wallets and approximately 2.94 trillion QU taken between 23:42 UTC October 17 and 01:26 UTC October 18. Wallets are accounts in that tally, rather than a verified number of individual victims.

As of this article’s 03:00 UTC October 21 loss-impact check, that remained the supported incident count. Cointelegraph’s October 20 report valued the stolen tokens around $1.4 million. No separately verified new attack wave or larger wallet count was established in the reviewed sources.

Qubic’s earlier containment breakdown said 87.1% of the drained tokens remained on its network, while 12.9% reached MEXC. The team said the exchange froze the receiving account within about an hour. Those percentages describe portions of the same stolen-token pool.

The latest escrow update says affected funds were moved into protected custody while processing was halted. That creates a route to recovery, while leaving the amount ultimately returned to each claimant dependent on verification and distribution.

Independent network data provide a narrower check on the restart. The Qubic analytics dashboard displayed network tick 85,581,300 during this review, beyond the reported halt point of 85,371,949. That supports resumed processing, but does not independently prove the full repayment total or ownership of every transfer.

The accounting distinction also appeared in Cronos’s earlier Tectonic recovery: containing assets and returning them are separate milestones. Qubic’s announcement establishes reported initial repayments, while a final unrecoverable-loss figure remains undisclosed.

May 1 Qubic claims require ownership evidence

Qubic’s deadline notice keeps claims open until May 1, 2027. The project says clear evidence allows faster processing and warns that it will not contact holders first by direct message or request their seed.

The official recovery portal asks for an affected address, a secure new destination, a signed message and independent ownership evidence. A signature alone is insufficient because an attacker who reconstructed a weak seed can sign too. Exchange withdrawal receipts and an independently provable funding trail are examples of evidence it accepts.

Approved claims face a seven-day dispute period before payout. Contested claims remain frozen in escrow. Identity verification is optional. The portal describes exchange-held recoveries as a separate, slower process dependent on law-enforcement cooperation.

The portal still contained introductory wording saying the network was halted when checked. That conflicts with Qubic’s newer restart announcement and the advancing dashboard. Its claims procedures remain useful, but that older status text should not be treated as the latest network update.

Registration therefore should not be read as an immediate payment instruction or proof that every claimant has been reimbursed. The reviewed announcement supplies no cumulative repayment ledger or completion date for all claims.

Qubic wallet warning calls for a fresh seed

The project also broadened its practical warning in its October 20 web-wallet notice. It tells anyone who created a wallet before version 4.26.4, which that notice dates to October 19, to treat the wallet as insecure even if its balance was untouched.

Qubic directs those users to update, create a new wallet, move funds to the new destination and stop using the old one. A wallet update changes software; it does not replace the secret controlling an existing address.

Its original affected-environment notice identified seeds generated before October 18 in any browser on iPhones or iPads, Safari on Macs, and the Qubic iOS app before July 2025. The subsequent instruction is broader precautionary guidance for older web-wallet users. Neither statement establishes that every such wallet was drained.

Alternative.me’s Fear & Greed Index read 63 on October 21, up from 55 the previous day, remaining in Greed territory. This Bitcoin-focused measure provides broader market context and does not measure confidence in Qubic’s recovery.

Source: Alternative.me, checked around 03:00 UTC October 21.

The next evidence to watch is a quantified repayment update, progress on exchange-held assets and the promised full technical report. Network activity and the first reported returns mark progress, while the final recovery rate remains unknown.