Mysterious meriquinone OSX process uses %198 of CPU. Disappears when activity monitor opens.

Hello, I have a early 2011 Macbook pro that I primarily use for music production. Usually it has the WIFI turned off. If I boot the laptop with the WIFI on, after about a minute the fan will start running at full, an indication that the CPU is being heavily utilized. If I open activity monitor and sort by CPU, I see this meriquinone process at the top using upwards of %190 of the CPU. The weirdest and most unsettling part is that about 5 seconds after I open activity monitor, the meriquinone process mysteriously disappears and the fan settles down. if I do not open activity monitor the fan continues to run at full speed with no applications open. If I boot the laptop without WIFI enabled, the process never shows up. Is my computer being utilized as a bitcoin miner or something. I cant find any info on the OSX process.

[https://imgur.com/1CuHqzY](https://imgur.com/1CuHqzY)

Any help is appreciated.