A large Bitcoin heist from December 2020 has simply been uncovered, making it the largest crypto hack in historical past.
In line with Arkham Intelligence, hackers stole 127,426 BTC from LuBian, a Chinese language mining pool. The stolen Bitcoin was value $3.5 billion on the time. On account of Bitcoin’s value surge, these property at the moment are valued at $14.5 billion.
LuBian Exploit Was the Largest Crypto Hack in Historical past
LuBian operated mining amenities in China and Iran. In 2020, it managed nearly 6% of Bitcoin’s whole hash charge.
Arkham’s on-chain evaluation discovered that over 90% of LuBian’s BTC was drained on December 28, 2020. Extra funds had been stolen two days later from a Bitcoin Omni Layer deal with.
Neither LuBian nor the hacker publicly acknowledged the breach. The funds remained dormant till a consolidation occasion in July 2024.
Arkham researchers linked a number of addresses used within the theft and noticed that every acquired OP_RETURN messages from LuBian. The pool spent 1.4 BTC throughout 1,516 transactions to attraction for the stolen funds.
This sample strongly suggests the hack was actual and never spoofed. The hacker has but to maneuver the stolen BTC once more.
Arkham suspects LuBian used a flawed key era algorithm, which can have uncovered its personal keys to brute-force assaults. LuBian nonetheless holds round 11,886 BTC value $1.35 billion.Â
In the meantime, the hacker’s stash stays untouched, making them the thirteenth largest BTC holder globally.
This revelation surpasses the earlier file—the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in February 2025.
Arkham’s disclosure provides new urgency to reviewing key safety and crypto infrastructure, particularly amongst legacy mining operations.
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