03.08.2025 02:56
A groundbreaking discovery by Arkham, a cryptocurrency intelligence platform, has unveiled the largest-ever Bitcoin heist, a previously unreported event of staggering proportions. Analysis of blockchain data pinpointed the theft of 127,426 Bitcoin from LuBian, a significant Chinese-based mining pool, in December 2020. This monumental sum represented approximately $3.5 billion at the time of the theft, a figure that has now ballooned to an astonishing $14.5 billion.
LuBian, boasting mining operations in both China and Iran, commanded a substantial 6% share of the global Bitcoin network in 2020. The attack, occurring on December 28th, 2020, appears to have decimated the pool's holdings, resulting in a loss of over 90% of its Bitcoin. Further investigation revealed additional losses: approximately $6 million in Bitcoin and Tether (USDT) were pilfered from a LuBian address on the Bitcoin Omni layer the following day. By December 31st, LuBian had moved its remaining assets to what are presumed to be recovery wallets.
Remarkably, neither LuBian nor the perpetrator has publicly acknowledged this incident until now, making Arkham's research the first documented account of this massive breach. Interestingly, in the aftermath of the attack, LuBian dispatched 1,516 separate transactions totaling 1.4 Bitcoin, containing OP_RETURN messages addressed to the hacker's wallets, demanding the return of the stolen funds. This extensive effort casts doubt on theories suggesting the private keys were compromised through brute-force methods. Instead, evidence suggests that vulnerabilities in LuBian's private key generation algorithms likely facilitated the attack.
Despite the devastating loss, LuBian managed to salvage 11,886 Bitcoin, currently valued at approximately $1.35 billion. However, the stolen 127,426 Bitcoin, representing the bulk of the heist, remains firmly under the hacker's control. The last known activity associated with these wallets was a consolidation transaction in July 2024. This unprecedented theft, initially valued at $3.5 billion, now represents the largest cryptocurrency heist in history, with the attacker currently possessing assets worth a staggering $14.5 billion, based on current market values. The information was obtained from internet sources.
