The Biggest Bitcoin Heist You’ve Never Heard Of
A sensational story has surfaced in the crypto industry: nearly five years ago, 127,426 BTC were stolen from the Chinese mining pool Lubian — worth around $3.5 billion at the time, and over $14 billion today. Blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence was the first to trace the missing funds and connect the incident to a critical security vulnerability at Lubian.
How Billions Were Stolen
The theft took place on December 28, 2020. According to Arkham, the attacker exploited a weakness in Lubian’s private key generation process, enabling a brute-force attack. In just one day, over 90% of the pool’s entire Bitcoin reserves were drained from its wallets.
A curious detail: After the breach, the Lubian team tried to reach out to the hacker, sending over 1,500 messages via the blockchain, pleading for the return of the stolen funds — spending about 1.4 BTC on these attempts. The team also managed to move the remaining 11,886 BTC to special recovery wallets by the end of 2020.
What Happened to the Stolen Bitcoin
After the hack, the attacker barely touched the stolen BTC. Today, the wallet holding these funds ranks among the 13 largest Bitcoin addresses in existence. For five years, the coins remained almost entirely dormant, with only a single significant transaction consolidating some funds in July 2024.
Neither Lubian nor the attacker have ever made a public statement about the incident, and until Arkham’s report, even industry professionals were unaware of the heist.
Why This Matters for Crypto
- The scale of the loss surpasses even the infamous Mt. Gox and Bitfinex hacks.
- The Lubian case highlights the critical importance of secure private key generation and regular security audits — even for major industry players.
- It’s a clear lesson: a single weak link in security can lead to multi-billion dollar losses, and lack of transparency can keep such incidents hidden for years.
Who Was Behind the Attack?
Arkham has released a public tracker for addresses linked to Lubian and the suspected hacker. So far, the identities of both parties remain unknown.
The biggest Bitcoin theft in history went unnoticed for years. Arkham’s discovery is a stark reminder for everyone in crypto: security must always be the top priority, because negligence can cost billions. And while blockchains are transparent, even the largest thefts can remain invisible for years.
