Key Takeaways:
- Arkham claims that 127,426 BTC was stolen from the Chinese mining pool LuBian in December 2020, marking it as the largest cryptocurrency theft in history.
- The analytics firm notes that the thief has mostly kept the stolen funds untouched, now valued at approximately $14.5 billion, while LuBian’s team seems to have made efforts to recover the lost assets.
- Weaknesses in private key security may have facilitated this breach, pointing out significant vulnerabilities in early mining infrastructure.
A potentially unprecedented Bitcoin heist has come to light, as revealed by Arkham Intelligence’s latest research. On August 2, the firm disclosed findings confirming that over 127,426 BTC—equivalent to around $3.5 billion—was taken from LuBian Mining Pool in late December 2020. Neither LuBian nor the suspected hacker has acknowledged this incident publicly, making Arkham the first to report it.
The firm’s Twitter thread detailed that LuBian was among the notable players in Bitcoin mining in 2020, with around 6% of the Bitcoin network’s hash power at the time. If verified, the breach would surpass previous exploits such as Mt. Gox and Bitfinex regarding total losses.
Significantly, Arkham’s analysis indicates that on December 28, 2020, a substantial portion—over 90%—of LuBian’s BTC reserves were siphoned off. Shortly thereafter, an additional incident involving the theft of around $6 million worth of Bitcoin and USDT was associated with a LuBian address utilizing the Bitcoin Omni Layer.
As of now, both LuBian and the hacker continue to manage their Bitcoin assets. Arkham has circulated wallet trackers for both entities, though no specifics about the individual identities involved have been disclosed.
