The Biggest Heist of All Time: $14 Billion Crypto Stolen in Five-Year Silence

In a shocking revelation that has sent ripples through the cryptocurrency world, a historic breach at one of the largest mining pools, LuBian, has been confirmed as the biggest crypto theft in history. The theft, which occurred in 2020, involved over $14.5 billion worth of stolen assets that had remained undetected for five long years.

What began as a silent infiltration into one of the world's largest cryptocurrency mining pools has now been revealed to be a masterclass in stealth and deception. The LuBian mining pool, once a dominant force in the Bitcoin network, quietly lost over 127,000 Bitcoins in 2020. However, it wasn't until 2025 that Arkham Intelligence, a leading cybersecurity firm, uncovered the breach.

The scale of this theft eclipses even the infamous Mt. Gox incidents of the early 2010s. While Mt. Gox saw a higher number of Bitcoins disappear, the significantly lower value of Bitcoin at the time made the financial loss far smaller in comparison. By contrast, the LuBian hack, valued at around $3.5 billion when it occurred, has since ballooned to $14.5 billion due to the rise in Bitcoin prices.

Despite the passage of time, the hacker has held onto all the stolen funds, with no signs of large-scale laundering or spending. Arkham's investigation suggests that the LuBian breach likely exploited a fundamental weakness in the platform's security architecture. Specifically, the private key generation reportedly relied on only 32 bits of entropy, a dangerously low standard by cryptographic norms.

This critical digital asset was being guarded with the digital equivalent of a paper lock, leaving it vulnerable to brute-force attacks that could be carried out with nothing more than a gaming PC and patience. The hacker, who reportedly compromised over 5,000 wallets, used this vulnerability to access and siphon nearly all of LuBian's Bitcoin holdings.

The mining pool itself disappeared from the network in 2021, only a few months after the theft. LuBian had once boasted of being the "safest high-yielding mining pool," a claim now overshadowed by its catastrophic collapse.

This incident calls attention to the broader issue of cyber hygiene within crypto infrastructure. The use of comprehensive security suites, robust encryption methods, and advanced firewall protections should be non-negotiable – yet even among top-tier players, critical oversights remain alarmingly common.

The lack of transparency around the breach until 2025 also raises questions about how many similar attacks may have gone unnoticed. It's a stark reminder of the consequences of weak digital security and the need for greater accountability in the cryptocurrency space.

A historic breach hidden in plain sight, the LuBian hack serves as a wake-up call for all stakeholders in the crypto ecosystem to prioritize security above all else. As we move forward, it's essential that we learn from this incident and implement robust measures to prevent such breaches in the future.