2020 LuBian Hack Quietly Becomes Biggest Crypto Theft in History

Blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence has revealed a staggering discovery: Chinese Bitcoin mining pool LuBian was hacked in December 2020 for 127,426 BTC—worth approximately $3.5 billion at the time. With Bitcoin prices now significantly higher, the stolen funds are valued at over $14.5 billion, making this the largest crypto hack in history. According to Arkham, the attack took place on December 28, 2020, but remained unreported for years. LuBian, which had risen to become the sixth-largest Bitcoin mining pool at the time, lost nearly 90% of its holdings before it could move the remaining 11,886 BTC to recovery wallets. The hacker and the pool both chose not to make the theft public, and the stolen assets remained hidden on-chain until the latest analysis uncovered the breach. LuBian Hack: Private Key Vulnerability A key detail that may have led to the successful hack lies in LuBian’s flawed private key generation method. Arkham suggests that LuBian was likely using an insecure algorithm vulnerable to brute-force attacks. This kind of weakness in cryptographic key generation can be fatal in the world of decentralized finance, where there are no intermediaries to recover stolen assets. In a remarkable attempt to communicate with the thief, LuBian reportedly sent 1,516 messages via OP_RETURN—an on-chain method for embedding text into Bitcoin transactions—directly to the hacker’s wallet addresses. This cost LuBian an additional 1.4 BTC, showcasing their desperation to perhaps negotiate or recover funds. The revelation casts a spotlight on the critical importance of secure key management. With Bitcoin’s supply fixed and prices soaring, the stakes are higher than ever. Experts emphasize using only secure, entropy-rich random number generators when creating private keys, as even a single weak link can expose massive amounts of funds. String of High-Profile Heists Underscores Ongoing Risks While LuBian’s hack is now the largest in crypto history, it joins a troubling trend of major security breaches in the sector. In February 2025, crypto exchange ByBit was compromised for $1.5 billion , then regarded as the largest known crypto theft. That incident was traced back to a SafeWallet developer’s compromised device, allowing hackers to exploit AWS credentials without detection. Just two months later, an individual lost $330 million in Bitcoin through a social engineering scam . The attacker laundered funds through 300 different wallets, and only a fraction—$7 million—was frozen in time. The post 2020 LuBian Hack Quietly Becomes Biggest Crypto Theft in History appeared first on TheCoinrise.com .