Shocking! The Largest Theft in History? Chinese Mining Pool LuBian Robbed, Stolen Assets Exceed Mt. Gox
Recently, blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence revealed that the Chinese mining pool LuBian suffered a major hacking attack in December 2020, losing over 90% of its BTC. Worse still, by the end of the month, approximately $6 million in BTC and USDT was stolen from its Omni layer address.
It is reported that the total amount stolen reached 127,426 BTC, worth about $3.5 billion at the time, and estimated losses now exceed $14.5 billion, making it one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in history.
Although LuBian once accounted for 6% of the global Bitcoin hash rate, ranking in the top ten, this disastrous attack seems to be the real reason for its mysterious closure in early 2021, rather than the previously stated regulatory pressure. Notably, this theft went undetected for over four years, with neither LuBian nor the hackers publicly acknowledging the incident.
Arkham's analysis suggests that the theft resulted from weak private key generation mechanisms at the mining pool, making it susceptible to brute-force attack. After the incident, LuBian attempted to recover the funds by sending over 1,500 small transactions with requests for return, but the hackers never responded.
Ultimately, LuBian was left with only 11,886 BTC (about $1.35 billion), while the remaining stolen BTC still remains in the hands of the hackers. The hackers' last operation was a wallet merge in July 2024, and they are now the 13th largest Bitcoin holder tracked by Arkham, even surpassing the Mt. Gox hackers.
Turning to the broader cryptocurrency security landscape, cybersecurity firm Certik reported that in July alone, reported vulnerabilities and fraud losses totaled approximately $153 million, including $86.6 million in exchange losses and $55.4 million in code vulnerabilities.
According to the Hacken report, DeFi losses reached $3.1 billion in the first half of 2025, marking the worst quarter since early 2023. The report also pointed out that the surge in social engineering and AI attacks is a major cause of the skyrocketing losses, with losses in just the first half of the year exceeding the total for 2024.
In summary, from thefts in mining pools to frequent DeFi attacks, the cryptocurrency space faces ongoing security challenges, and as investors, the alarm bells for security must ring constantly!
