The LuBian mining pool lost 127,000 BTC in a theft in 2020, but the hacker still controls the assets and has become the world's 13th largest BTC hold

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according to Arkham, the mining pool LuBian, which was once among the top ten in the world, suffered a major security incident in December 2020, with a total of 127,426 BTC stolen, valued at $14.5 billion at the current price, making it the largest Bitcoin theft in history.

Arkham stated that LuBian was a Chinese mining pool that had mining farms in China and Iran. In May 2020, it controlled nearly 6% of the total network hash rate of the Bitcoin network, with significant industry influence. The attack occurred on December 28, 2020, and the attacker allegedly exploited a vulnerability in its private key generation algorithm to successfully steal over 90% of the holdings. The next day (December 29), the hacker transferred some of the BTC again, amounting to $6 million.

In addition, LuBian attempted to plead with the hacker through on-chain OP_RETURN messages to return the stolen assets. Officials 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 (approximately $1.35 billion), and 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, their identity is unknown, and their holdings rank them as the 13th largest BTC holder globally, surpassing even the Mt. Gox hacker address.

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