Arkham Intelligence has revealed that 127,426 BTC were stolen from the LuBian mining pool in 2020, marking the largest theft in cryptocurrency history.
Circumstances of the Theft
The theft occurred on December 28, 2020, when the hacker withdrew over 90% of the pool's assets before LuBian could transfer the remaining 11,886 BTC to backup wallets. At the time, the value of the stolen amount was about $3.5 billion, and it is now estimated to be over $14.5 billion.
Causes and Details of the Incident
Arkham claims that a vulnerability in LuBian's private key generation algorithm may have been the primary reason for the hack. After the theft, the pool attempted to contact the hacker by sending 1,516 messages via the OP_RETURN field, spending about 1.4 BTC in the process.
Consequences and Recommendations
The LuBian theft surpassed previous known attacks, becoming the largest in the industry. Arkham emphasizes the need for strict security measures, recommending the use of reliable random number generators for creating private keys and multi-layered security for storing digital assets.
The LuBian incident serves as a crucial reminder of the need for security in the cryptocurrency industry, as well as the potential risks associated with vulnerable algorithms.
