$14.5B BTC Stolen From Chinese Mining Pool in 2020 – And No One Noticed Until Now

Blockchain intel firm Arkham Intelligence just exposed a massive 2020 exploit that drained over 127,000 BTC – now worth $14.5 billion – from a Chinese mining pool named LuBian.

• 127,426 BTC (~$14.5B) stolen from LuBian in late 2020
• The exploit went unnoticed for years; Arkham just revealed it
• LuBian may have used a weak key-generation algorithm
• The remaining 11,886 BTC ($1.35B) still untouched in original wallet
• No movement from the hacker since July 2024

The Biggest Bitcoin Heist Ever, Hidden in Plain Sight

In a shocking revelation, Arkham Intelligence disclosed that LuBian, once one of the top mining pools on the Bitcoin network, lost the majority of its funds in a hack on December 28, 2020. The attacker drained over 90% of LuBian’s BTC holdings in one blow. A day later, another $6M worth of BTC and USDT was stolen from the same pool via Bitcoin’s Omni Layer.

And this went completely unnoticed by the broader crypto community until now.

LuBian emerged suddenly in April 2020, quickly rising to become the sixth-largest Bitcoin mining pool. Its Chinese-language homepage even touted it as “the safest high-yielding mining pool in the world.” But by February 2021, it vanished without a trace, sparking speculation about regulatory shutdowns or a quiet pivot to a private pool.

Now, we know the real story may have been much darker.

A Billion-Dollar Mistake

According to Arkham, the root cause may have been a flaw in LuBian’s private key algorithm. If true, it means the pool was using a key-generation method vulnerable to brute-force attacks – a fundamental error in crypto security.

LuBian still holds 11,886 BTC, currently valued at $1.35 billion, a small fraction of its former reserves. In a desperate bid, the team embedded messages into Bitcoin transactions via the OP_RETURN field, reaching out to the hacker as if hoping it was a whitehat. The messages even offered contact details and a potential reward, but no one knows if the hacker ever responded.

Since July 2024, there has been zero on-chain movement of the stolen BTC. That makes this a ticking time bomb, over $14B in stolen Bitcoin sitting dormant for years, untouched, unlaundered, and still linked to the attack wallets.

If these coins ever move again, it could rattle markets and trigger scrutiny across compliance and law enforcement sectors.

Final thought

This isn’t just a historic breach, t’s a wake-up call for crypto infrastructure teams. In a space built on trustless systems and code security, even a mining pool managing billions was brought down by weak key generation. Web3 builders and investors need to remember: Security isn’t a feature – it’s the foundation. And as the Arkham report proves, even the biggest players can lose everything overnight if that foundation cracks.