ETC Trading Suspended On Coinbase Following Attack On Blockchain By Bad Actors


This morning, smarttest.wpmudev.host reported that the Ethereum Classic network was under a 51% attack. To protect its investors, Coinbase has stopped all deposits and withdrawals of Ethereum Classic (ETC). Reports from BlockScout and Bitfly show that over 100 blocks were reorganized on the Ethereum Classic network on Sunday. Coinbase announced that it noticed a double spend of 88,500 ETC. At current rates, this amounts to about $460,000.


Ethereum Classic (ETC) Open To Potential 51% Attack

On Monday, Coinness reported that one of its in-house analysts detected an abnormal hash rate on the Ethereum Classic network. There was abnormal activity going into a single mining pool. This was what caused a reorganization of already mined blocks even if the proponents of ETC initially refuted the attack, they eventually took to their official Twitter handle to affirm that there was indeed cause for concern on the blockchain. The post was as follows:
“Currently, we are working with SlowMist and some others in the cryptocurrency community to find a solution to this problem. For now, we recommend that mining pools and exchanges increase their confirmation times significantly to minimize the risks of manipulation.”


Ethereum (ETH) Price Today – BTC / USD
NamePrice24H %
ethereum
Ethereum(ETH)
$0.00-2.08%


On Monday morning, a China-based security firm, SlowMist, told its users that there is some sort of strange activity on the network and its team was working on tracing the root of the attack. Users were encouraged to halt transactions until the problem has been resolved.


Who Is Responsible For The Attack On The Ethereum Classic Network


While it’s not yet clear who or which mining pool is responsible for the attack, the ETC team said that the hash rate may have originated from Linzhi, a mining hardware manufacturer. Linzhi had initially announced that it was testing out its new machines with about 1,400Mh/s hashrate. However, the director of operations at the company, Wolfgang Spraul, said that they were not responsible for the attack in anyway. In his words:


“These claims are completely baseless. We deny them categorically and we believe this accusations may be part of the attack itself. We are yet to launch our product. Even if we want to test it, there is no way we would test it with the mainnet. We would either use a private net or testnet. Also, independent figures in the industry like Anthony Lusardi or David Vorick will be invited to observe when we are testing.”
The details of the attack are still unclear. For example, BlockScout claimed the attacks occurred from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC on Monday. Bitfly, at 17:00 UTC, announced that the attack was ongoing. Even when Coinbase made the announcement, it stated that the attack was ongoing. While there are conflicting reports about the time, everyone agrees that there was a disruption in the Ethereum Classic network.


The lead developer at BlockScout, Andrew Cravenho, said that the reorganization attack occurred about 24 hours ago. He noted that the network is fluctuating constantly and players are switching their hashing power. This shows that the disruption may still be ongoing.


Ethereum Classic (ETC) Price Slumps Amid Reorganization Attack


As expected, the price of ETC has fallen significantly since the first report about the reorganization was made. Trading in red against the USD, ETC is currently trading at $5.02. This shows that it is down by 4.17% against the USD and down by 3.83% against BTC. This means it has started recovering since it was down by up to 10% earlier today. The trading volume over a 24 hour period is $157,768,633 and the market capitalization is $538,800,506.

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