☠️ Arkham uncovered the largest theft in mining history amounting to $3.5 billion
The Chinese mining pool LuBian, which had operations in China and Iran, was hacked in December 2020, resulting in the theft of 127,426 BTC — at that time worth $3.5 billion, and now valued at $14.5 billion. This was previously not reported publicly — neither by the company nor by the hackers.
At its peak in 2020, LuBian controlled nearly 6% of the Bitcoin network's hash rate. The hackers withdrew over 90% of the BTC from the pool's wallets on December 28. Then, on December 29, another $6 million in BTC and USDT was stolen through an address on the Bitcoin Omni network.
On December 31, the remaining funds of LuBian were transferred to backup wallets. The company even sent messages to the hackers through the OP_RETURN function in the blockchain, asking for the assets to be returned. This cost 1.4 BTC and involved 1,516 transactions.
Arkham suggests that LuBian used a vulnerable private key generation algorithm susceptible to brute force attacks. This likely allowed the hackers to gain access.
Of the stolen assets, the hacker still holds the entire amount. Due to the price increase, their wallet is now valued at $14.5 billion, making them the 13th largest BTC holder in the world.
Source: Telegram channel DeCenter
