Analysts at Arkham Intelligence have released data on the largest Bitcoin theft in the history of the crypto industry. In 2020, 127,426 BTC were stolen from the Chinese mining pool LuBian, which at that time was valued at $3.5 billion. At the current exchange rate, this amount has risen to approximately $14.5 billion.
This is reported by Business • Media
Details of the Attack on the LuBian Pool
According to Arkham’s findings, the incident occurred on December 28, 2020. The hacker managed to withdraw over 90% of the mining pool’s assets, while LuBian was only able to transfer 11,886 BTC to backup wallets. This left the pool virtually without funds. Despite the extraordinary scale of the event, neither the pool nor the perpetrator disclosed information about the theft, and only now are the details of this attack becoming known.
At the time of the hack, LuBian was among the top six Bitcoin mining pools and positioned itself as “the safest high-yield pool in the world.” By February 2021, the platform had disappeared without explanation, which was then attributed to actions by authorities or a transition to a closed mode. However, Arkham now insists that the cause was indeed the massive theft.
Reasons for the Hack and Industry Implications
The investigation revealed that the main vulnerability of LuBian was its private key generation algorithm, which was unprotected against brute-force attacks. This allowed the hacker to gain access to most of the pool’s assets. After the attack, LuBian representatives attempted to contact the hacker by sending 1,516 messages through the OP_RETURN field in the blockchain, spending about 1.4 BTC in the process.
“To the white hat hacker who is saving our assets. Contact us to discuss the return and your reward,” read one of the messages.
However, analysts report that no response was received from the criminal. The stolen Bitcoins remain untouched, leading to speculation that either the hacker has been apprehended or is wary that transactions may attract the attention of investigative authorities.
This theft significantly surpassed the previous industry record when the exchange Bybit lost $1.5 billion due to an attack. Arkham specialists emphasize that the situation with LuBian serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of implementing advanced cybersecurity measures in cryptocurrency projects. The company advises using only reliable random number generators for creating private keys and applying a multi-layered system for protecting digital assets.
It is worth noting that, according to a report by Hacken, the total losses in the crypto industry in the first half of 2025 reached $3.1 billion, exceeding the losses for the entire year of 2024.