A Bitcoin War? This is indeed what one might think when reading a recent accusation made by the Chinese National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC), which claims that the United States 'stole' a huge amount of bitcoins from a Chinese mining pool in 2020. These bitcoins belonged to a certain Chen Zhi, a Chinese businessman accused by the American justice system of orchestrating a vast scam and using these funds to finance his criminal activities.

Key points of this article:

  • The Chinese National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center accused the United States of having "stolen" a massive amount of bitcoins from a Chinese mining pool in 2020.

  • The U.S. Department of Justice seized 127,272 bitcoins, claiming they originated from criminal activities orchestrated by Chen Zhi and the Prince Group.

The facts: a record seizure of 127,000 BTC by the United States

On October 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it had seized 127,272 bitcoins, worth over $13 billion, as part of an investigation into a criminal network operating in Southeast Asia.

According to the DOJ, these bitcoins came from a mining pool called LuBian, controlled by a certain Chen Zhi of the Prince Group: a transnational criminal organization in Cambodia that allegedly carried out large-scale pig-butchering scams (or "romance scams"), enticing online victims before encouraging them to invest in fraudulent trading platforms.

Chen Zhi allegedly scammed thousands of people around the world, including in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe. He then used the funds to finance illegal activities such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, and money laundering. The DOJ therefore decided to seize his bitcoins, considered as proceeds of crime.

The Chinese version: a "theft" of Bitcoin committed by U.S. hackers

But for China, this seizure is termed as "theft." In a report published on November 9, 2025, the Chinese National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center, a national cybersecurity agency, disputes the DOJ's version and accuses the United States of having "hacked" the LuBian mining pool in December 2020 to seize more than 127,000 bitcoins.

According to the CVERC, the analysis of blockchain transactions shows that the 25 seized BTC addresses listed in the indictment by the U.S. Department of Justice correspond to the final addresses where the stolen bitcoins were kept during the 2020 attack on the LuBian mining pool.

This case once again highlights the growing strategic importance of Bitcoin, and more generally cryptocurrencies, on the international stage. What is surprising, however (not really, in fact), is that China is so concerned about Bitcoin while, on the surface, it constantly criticizes the precious crypto-asset and its peers. Necessary hypocrisy when one wants to impose a central bank digital currency (CBDC) on the People, while unofficially being very concerned about not losing bitcoins to the United States.

This article is for information and education only.

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