In 2020, LuBian mining pool suffered a theft of 127,000 BTC, with the hacker still controlling the assets and becoming the 13th largest BTC holder globally

According to a report by Jinse Finance, Arkham has revealed that LuBian, once ranked among the world’s top ten mining pools, suffered a major security incident in December 2020, resulting in the theft of 127,426 BTC. At current prices, this amounts to $14.5 billion, making it the largest Bitcoin theft in history. Arkham stated that LuBian was a Chinese mining pool with mining operations in both China and Iran. In May 2020, it controlled nearly 6% of the total Bitcoin network hashrate, giving it significant industry influence. The attack occurred on December 28, 2020, with the attacker suspected of exploiting a vulnerability in LuBian’s private key generation algorithm, successfully stealing over 90% of its holdings through brute-force methods. The next day (December 29), the hacker transferred part of the BTC again, amounting to $6 million. In addition, LuBian attempted to plead with the hacker for the return of the stolen assets by sending OP_RETURN messages on-chain. The official team sent a total of 1,516 transactions with messages, consuming 1.4 BTC, further confirming that the incident was not a hoax. Currently, LuBian still holds 11,886 BTC (about $1.35 billion), while the hacker’s last on-chain activity was an address consolidation in July 2024. As of the disclosure date, the hacker still controls the stolen BTC and remains unidentified, now ranking as the world’s 13th largest BTC holder, even surpassing the Mt.Gox hacker address.