Arkham Intelligence uncovered a significant Bitcoin heist that went unnoticed for years. This incident, known as the LuBian Attack, occurred in 2020.
Timeline of LuBian Attack
The attack started on December 28, 2020, when hackers seized over 90% of the total BTC holdings from the mining pool. A second attack took place the following day, draining another $6 million in BTC and USDT from a wallet on the Bitcoin Omni layer.
On December 31, the Chinese mining pool took action to protect what was left, moving 11,886 cryptos into safer recovery wallets. That remaining amount is now valued at over $1.35 billion.
Secret Messages to Hacker
Instead of reporting the crime, the mining pool quietly tried to reach the hacker. They sent 1,516 OP_RETURN messages directly to the wallets holding the stolen crypto. These messages pleaded with the hacker to return the funds, costing around 1.4 BTC to send.
This strange act confirmed the team was aware of the heist but chose not to speak publicly at the time.
Lessons for the Crypto Industry
Arkham's report identifies a significant security vulnerability. The mining pool employed a weak algorithm when generating their private keys, exposing them to brute-force attacks.
This fact illustrates that even major crypto operations are vulnerable if they fail to implement robust security measures.
The LuBian Attack is now recognized as the largest Bitcoin heist ever, surpassing significant incidents like the ByBit hack and the infamous Mt. Gox takeover. This event serves as an important reminder of the need for stringent security measures in the crypto sector.
