Ethereum Classic (ETC) was hit with a 51% attack this week. According to some reports, the digital asset has also experienced some block reorganizations that included double spends. The popular crypto platform Coinbase took the decision to halt Ethereum Classic transactions through its platform.
Ethereum Classic ETC 51% Attack
Ethereum Classic did not have a good Monday. It seems that its blockchain has been 51%-attacked and the attackers performed several block reorganizations. In a blog post, Mark Nesbitt, Security Engineer at Coinbase, explained that they are monitoring the status of the network and keep the community updated about it.
A 51% attack is performed when there is an individual or group of miners that control more than 51% of the network’s hash rate in Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithms. When an entity is able to control 51% of the hash rate, it can execute double spend attacks. According to Coinbase, the ETC network experienced 20 reorganizations that resulted in more than 308,000 ETC spent. This is equal to $1.57 million at current market rates.
The official Twitter account of Ethereum Classic asked exchanges and mining pools to increase the confirmation time on withdrawals and deposits to take care of users’ funds.
https://twitter.com/eth_classic/status/1082153023265112064
At the same time, they informed that Coinbase detected double spends but did not inform ETC personnel about this attack. Additionally, they say that this is still an ongoing process and that they would keep the community informed about this issue.
Later, Ethereum Classic informed that there was a company known as Linzhi Shenzhen that was testing ASIC miners. However, this is something that was later denied by Wolfgang Spraul, Linzhi Shenzhen director of operations, in an email to CoinDesk.
About the accusation made by Ethereum Classic, he commented:
“We are categorically denying such claims, they are entirely baseless and may be part of the attack itself. If we would test our ASICs, we would never do that on any mainnet, we would do that on a testnet or a private net. We would most likely invite independent industry figures like David Vorick or Anthony Lusardi to observe what we are doing.”
Currently, there is no more information available about this situation and what’s happening to Ethereum Classic.
At the time of writing this article. Ethereum Classic is the 18th largest digital asset with a market capitalization of $611 million. Each ETC coin can be purchased for $5.11 and in the last 24 hours, it lost 1.66% of its value. This is the largest drop among the top 50.
In December, the ETC community experienced a conflict regarding the official GitHub site. Since that moment, the community is divided regarding what to do with the Digital Finance Group (DFG) and its intention to take over the GitHub page.
Back in 2018, Ethereum Classic was added to Coinbase as the fifth asset supported by the platform.
