Key Takeaways:
- Chinese language cybersecurity watchdog, CVERC, has accused the U.S. authorities of seizing 127,000 BTC that had been stolen from the LuBian mining pool in 2020.
- CVERC claimed in its technical report that the hack was performed utilizing superior instruments and had the fingerprints of a “state-level hacking group” behind the scenes.
- The usDepartment of Justice seized the bitcoins from the exploit’s fundamental offender, Chen Zhi, in 2024, sending them to a pockets managed by the federal authorities. The DoJ has dismissed the accusation, claiming the seizure was a part of a normal legislation enforcement process.
- An investigation by Arkham Intelligence revealed {that a} complete of 127,426 BTC, valued at $13.4 billion as of November 2025, had been stolen by way of a brute-force assault focusing on LuBian’s weak non-public keys.
The Nationwide Laptop Virus Emergency Response Heart (CVERC), China’s cybersecurity watchdog, has accused the U.S. authorities of proliferating a high-profile crypto heist. The case in query is the 2020 exploit of a Chinese language bitcoin mining pool, which resulted in hackers stealing greater than 127,000 BTC. These belongings are actually value over $13 billion.
The company launched a technical report on Sunday claiming that the bitcoin seized by the U.S. Division of Justice (DoJ) final yr initially belonged to the LuBian mining pool. On the time of the assault, LuBian, which operated from China and Iran, was one of many largest bitcoin mining swimming pools. It as soon as managed nearly 6% of the Bitcoin community’s complete hash fee.
China Accuses U.S. Authorities of Involvement in 2020 LuBian Mining Pool Hack, 127,000 BTC Seized
CVERC claims the assault was carried out with superior instruments, suggesting that it had the fingerprints of a “state-level hacking group,” and the U.S. authorities’s seizure was half of a bigger operation involving the identical attackers.
The offender behind the assault was Chen Zhi, chairman of Cambodia’s Worth Group, who’s at the moment beneath indictment by U.S. authorities for his involvement in a large-scale crypto fraud scheme. The hack, which occurred 5 years in the past, flew beneath the radar for many of that point, whereas the stolen bitcoins remained untouched till final yr.
In mid-2024, the bitcoins had been quietly moved to new wallets, which blockchain evaluation agency Arkham Intelligence later tagged to the U.S. authorities. The federal authorities claimed that the funds had been legal proceeds, however CVERC’s evaluation challenges that argument. The Chinese language company instructed that the seizure could have been the ultimate step in a bigger operation involving the identical attackers behind the unique theft.
The DoJ dismissed China’s claims, sustaining that the seizure was a legit legislation enforcement operation focusing on unlawful cryptocurrency-related actions.
Arkham Intelligence Investigation Revealed That Extra Than 90% of LuBian’s Bitcoin Holdings Have been Stolen within the Breach
The incident remained unnoticed for years, with neither LuBian nor the attacker disclosing the breach. Arkham performed an investigation and uncovered that 127,426 BTC was stolen from the mining pool, which accounted for greater than 90% of LuBian’s bitcoin holdings.
On-chain information exhibits that the breach befell over two days, from December 28 to December 29, 2020. On the time, the bitcoins had been value $3.5 billion. The identical belongings are value $13.41 billion on the present fee of $105,268 per BTC.
Following the hack, the LuBian crew tried to contact the hacker utilizing the Bitcoin community’s OP_RETURN characteristic. They despatched 1,400 BTC throughout 1,516 messages requesting the offender to return the funds and providing a reward, to no avail.
LuBian Employed Weak Pockets Codes That Have been Already At Threat
Akrham’s investigation revealed that the basis reason behind the exploit was the era of weak non-public keys. They assessed that LuBian’s algorithms had been most likely susceptible to brute-force assaults. One report linked the hack to a problem with the mining pool’s Belief Pockets code. This code, primarily based on a 32-bit entropy, has been focused prior to now, and related strategies had been used to use 1000’s of older Bitcoin wallets.
Regardless of the huge breach, LuBian managed to guard 11,886 BTC that remained in its pool, that are at the moment value about $1.25 billion.
China’s accusation has additional escalated its ongoing rigidity with the U.S. Whereas the U.S. authorities disputed the CVERC’s claims that it was a part of the high-profile hack, the DoJ maintained that the asset seizure was a part of a normal legislation enforcement motion focusing on legal proceeds.
On the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is buying and selling at $105,268 – down 1.02% in 24 hours.
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