LuBian's Massive 2020 Bitcoin Heist Comes to Light: 127K BTC Lost Forever
The crypto world has just been shaken to its core as a massive Bitcoin heist, previously unknown to the general public, has come to light. A team of blockchain sleuths at Arkham Intelligence has revealed that LuBian's 2020 Bitcoin hack is now the largest in crypto history, with 127,426 BTC stolen and worth approximately $14.5 billion at the time of writing.
The revelation marks a significant milestone in the ongoing battle to uncover and expose cybercrimes within the cryptocurrency space. It has been reported that LuBian's massive hack eclipses even the infamous ByBit breach from February 2024, which was initially thought to be the largest crypto theft in history, with losses of over $1.5 billion.
Arcane details surrounding the heist have now come to light as researchers at Arkham Intelligence unearthed evidence that LuBian's Bitcoin mining pool was hacked on December 28th, 2020, when hackers breached and stole an astonishing 127,426 BTC. Prior to this discovery, it had been suspected that LuBian's vulnerabilities were more extensive than initially thought.
The LuBian hack has also shed new light on the devastating impact of poor private key generation practices in cryptocurrency security. It is believed that hackers exploited weak entropy methods used by Trust Wallet code, which are notoriously vulnerable to brute-force attacks. As a result, LuBian's wallets were left exposed and susceptible to these cyber threats.
Despite efforts by LuBian to negotiate with the attackers, all of their attempts were unsuccessful. It is now believed that hackers drained around 90% of LuBian's funds before securing only 11,886 BTC in recovery wallets, significantly impacting the pool's treasury. Furthermore, hackers proceeded to steal an additional $6 million worth of Bitcoin and USDT from LuBian's wallets just a day after breaching their systems.
The attackers' brazen move has now led to them leaving the stolen Bitcoin untouched for over three years, consolidating it into a single wallet as recently as July 2024. This remarkable feat elevates the perpetrator to the 13th-largest BTC holder in history, surpassing even infamous Mt. Gox hackers.
The LuBian incident serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerability that lies at the heart of cryptocurrency security and raises questions about how such breaches can occur, often resulting in catastrophic losses for victims and investors alike. As scrutiny intensifies across both corporate and individual actors within crypto, it is essential to address these issues proactively to prevent further incidents like this from occurring.