The truth behind the closure of the world's sixth largest "LuBian Roadside Mining Pool" has been exposed: 127,000 Bitcoins stolen, now worth 14.5 billion USD (not moved for five years).

The $14.5 billion LuBian Bitcoin theft case has been hidden for nearly five years and is now officially revealed by Arkham. The 127,426 Bitcoins are still quietly sitting in the wallet. (Background: False prosperity? U.S. July non-farm employment far below expectations, revisions down by 258,000 in May and June, Trump criticizes Powell, fires Labor Secretary) (Additional background: After Wall Street's pollution of Bitcoin, "1BTC≠1btc", why are native Bitcoins the next Holy Grail?) A $14.5 billion Bitcoin theft case has had its mystery unveiled nearly five years later, as on-chain analytics company Arkham Intelligence released a detailed report early this morning (3rd), revealing that in late 2020, the Chinese mining pool LuBian was hacked, resulting in the theft of 127,426 Bitcoins. One of the largest thefts in history: 127,426 BTC lost. This is the first time the incident has been publicly confirmed (neither LuBian nor the hackers had acknowledged the breach at the time). Arkham's analysis of on-chain footprints shows that the main attack occurred on December 28, 2020, when the price of Bitcoin was about $27,500, resulting in a total theft of around $3.5 billion, which has now skyrocketed to $14.5 billion at current prices. After this massive amount of funds was transferred out, the wallet address remained dormant for a long time, only appearing once for internal consolidation in July 2024, and has now become the 13th largest Bitcoin holder in the world. BREAKING: ARKHAM UNCOVERS $3.5B HEIST – THE LARGEST EVER. LuBian was a Chinese mining pool with facilities in China & Iran. Based on analysis of on-chain data, it appears that 127,426 BTC was stolen from LuBian in December 2020, worth $3.5 billion at the time and now worth… pic.twitter.com/PnIOKgMt0i — Arkham (@arkham) August 2, 2025. The private key was too simple, and the hacker easily performed a brute force attack. The Arkham report indicates that the weakness in the random function used during the private key generation phase was the key that allowed hackers to "brute force". Low entropy is like making the grooves of a front door lock too regular; given enough time, hackers can try every key. Arkham speculates that the vulnerability is similar to the 32-bit random number issue found in early versions of some Trust Wallet source code. On-chain SOS: 1,516 OP_RETURN messages went unanswered. After the theft, LuBian did not publicly report it but instead used Bitcoin's OP_RETURN feature to attempt to directly communicate with the hackers. A total of 1,516 small transactions with strings cost about 1.4 BTC, repeatedly pleading for the return of the funds. LuBian ultimately ceased mining in early 2021, with the outside world generally believing that, in addition to policy resistance from China and Iran, the massive losses were the last straw that crushed the business. LuBian roadside mining pool entered the market at the end of April 2020 and quickly rose to become the sixth largest Bitcoin mining pool in the world, at one point controlling nearly 6% of the Bitcoin network's computing power, with its mining facilities located in China and Iran. Security insights and future warnings. The core lesson revealed by the LuBian case is simple: if the private key generation is not robust enough, once cracked, it becomes a natural disaster-level security black hole. As the value of crypto assets continues to rise, if the industry wants to reassure investors, it must forge invisible security tools into the hardest armor; otherwise, no matter how great the returns, they could evaporate overnight. On the other hand, this batch of BTC remains motionless to this day, but there is a possibility of transactions at any time in the future, and the market should continuously monitor its on-chain flow. Related reports: After Wall Street polluted Bitcoin, "1BTC≠1btc", why are native Bitcoins the next Holy Grail? Bitcoin reserve companies: Why spend $2 to buy $1 BTC? A hundred billion selling pressure has not shaken Bitcoin, is BTC's next target to soar to $140,000? <The truth behind the collapse of the sixth largest "LuBian roadside mining pool": 127,000 Bitcoins stolen, now worth $14.5 billion (inactive for five years)> This article was first published in BlockTempo, the most influential blockchain news media.