A serious dispute has emerged between China and america over the destiny of 127,000 bitcoin (BTC), now valued at roughly $13 billion, initially taken from the LuBian mining pool in 2020.
China’s accusations towards the U.S.
China’s Nationwide Laptop Virus Emergency Response Heart (CVERC) launched a report accusing the U.S. authorities of seizing bitcoin that was stolen in a 2020 hack.
The company claimed {that a} “state-level hacking group” was chargeable for the unique theft and implied the U.S. was behind each the hack and the eventual seizure.
CVERC’s technical evaluation, highlighted by the state-run World Instances, pointed to the usage of superior instruments and steered the operation deviated from typical felony patterns.
U.S. response and open-source findings
The U.S. authorities disputes these claims, sustaining that the 2024 seizure was a regulation enforcement motion concentrating on felony proceeds tied to Chen Zhi, chairman of Cambodia’s Prince Group, who’s beneath indictment for fraud and cash laundering.
Impartial blockchain researchers traced the unique outflow of the LuBian wallets to a flaw in Bitcoin handle key technology, which allowed an unknown entity to comb the funds.
Forensic evaluation by Arkham, MilkSad, and others tie the seized cash to susceptible wallets, however don’t attribute the 2020 hack to any particular state actor.
What blockchain forensics present
On-chain information confirms that the cash remained dormant for years earlier than being consolidated into wallets now tagged as U.S. government-controlled.
Technical studies, together with CVE-2023-39910, clarify that weak random quantity technology made the wallets vulnerable to brute-force assaults.
The U.S. Division of Justice has filed forfeiture actions for the seized bitcoin, asserting they’re felony proceeds.
Ongoing debate over attribution
Whereas Chinese language authorities hyperlink U.S. custody of the property to attainable state involvement within the hack, Western researchers stress a scarcity of technical proof for this declare.
As on-chain forensics present, the funds’ motion aligns with exploitation of weak pockets keys, not definitive state motion.
The query of who initially drained the wallets stays unresolved.