2 weeks ago
A crypto wallet tied to a little-known Chinese mining excavation whitethorn person been the unfortunate of the largest bitcoin theft ever recorded, according to caller findings from Arkham Intelligence.
In an Aug. 2 thread connected X, the onchain analytics steadfast said it had uncovered grounds that 127,426 BTC — worthy $3.5 cardinal astatine the clip — was stolen from LuBian Mining Pool successful precocious December 2020. Neither LuBian nor the suspected hacker has ever publically acknowledged the breach, and Arkham said it is the archetypal to study the incident.
LuBian was 1 of the largest bitcoin mining pools globally successful 2020, reportedly controlling astir 6% of Bitcoin’s full hash complaint arsenic of May that year. The hack, if confirmed, would eclipse the standard of different high-profile exploits similar Mt. Gox and Bitfinex by nominal worth astatine the clip of loss.
Arkham's investigation indicates that connected Dec. 28, 2020, much than 90% of LuBian’s BTC holdings were drained. Two days later, different theft involving astir $6 cardinal worthy of BTC and USDT occurred, linked to a LuBian code operating connected the Bitcoin Omni layer. The institution appears to person moved its remaining 11,886 BTC — past worthy hundreds of millions — into betterment wallets by Dec. 31, 2020.
A notable item successful Arkham’s study is the beingness of OP_RETURN messages — peculiar transactions that let information to beryllium embedded successful the Bitcoin blockchain — sent from LuBian to the hacker. According to Arkham, the mining excavation spent 1.4 BTC crossed implicit 1,500 transactions attempting to interaction the thief, urging them to instrumentality the stolen funds. This effort suggests the messages were genuine and originated from the rightful wallet owner.
Arkham believes the vulnerability whitethorn person stemmed from LuBian’s usage of a flawed backstage cardinal procreation algorithm that near it susceptible to brute-force attacks. The stolen BTC has seemingly remained mostly dormant, with the past large question being a wallet consolidation successful July 2024.
Due to the terms appreciation of bitcoin since 2020, the existent worth of the stolen assets is estimated to beryllium $14.5 billion. That makes the wallet associated with the LuBian hacker the 13th largest BTC holder tracked by Arkham — surpassing the holdings linked to the Mt. Gox breach.
As of today, some the hacker and LuBian are believed to inactive power their respective BTC balances. Arkham has published wallet trackers for some parties, but nary further details astir the identities progressive person been disclosed.
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