Wallets associated with LuBian have transferred 15,959 BTC, valued at $1.83 billion, across four different addresses. This marks their second significant transfer in recent weeks, reigniting one of the most intriguing on-chain mysteries in crypto.
Summary
- Wallets connected to LuBian shifted 15,959 BTC worth $1.83B across four addresses, highlighting their second major transaction in just a week.
- This activity rekindles interest in the 2020 theft of 127,426 BTC, one of the largest hacks in crypto history.
On October 22, OnchainLens identified a coordinated transfer from four wallets associated with LuBian, the now-defunct Chinese mining pool implicated in a Bitcoin (BTC) embezzlement scandal back in 2020. The alert revealed two identical transactions of 4,999 BTC, along with transfers of 3,424 BTC and 2,535 BTC to separate addresses.
This recent move closely follows another transfer of 11,886 BTC, valued at $1.3 billion, from LuBian-related wallets, indicating a resurgence of control over funds that were previously assumed to be frozen under U.S. authority.
A four-year mystery that has stayed alive
The latest actions of wallets tied to LuBian reignite interest in one of Bitcoin’s most dramatic unanswered thefts. In December 2020, this once-prominent Chinese mining pool reported being hacked for 127,426 BTC, which was worth $3.5 billion at the time and nearly $14.5 billion at current prices.
As per Arkham Intelligence, the hackers exploited vulnerabilities in the miner’s private key generation process, effectively draining over 90% of LuBian’s assets overnight, followed by an additional $6 million in Bitcoin and USDT the following day.
The situation was laced with irony; LuBian had swiftly risen to become the sixth-largest mining pool globally early in 2020 while advertising itself as “the safest high-yielding mining pool in the world.”
In a unique move to retrieve the assets, LuBian directly reached out to the attacker on-chain. Utilizing Bitcoin’s OP_RETURN function, they left a message that read, “To the whitehat who is saving our asset, you can contact us… to discuss the return of the asset and your reward.” Unfortunately, the message went unanswered.
This transfer comes following the DOJ’s announcement on October 14 of one of the largest crypto forfeiture cases ever, aiming at the Prince Holding Group and its founder, Chen Zhi.
U.S. prosecutors filed a complaint for about $14.4 billion in Bitcoin linked to an alleged international fraud scheme. The DOJ revealed that Zhi and his associates employed companies like LuBian to launder illicit funds and create “clean Bitcoin dissociated from criminal proceeds.”
Currently, Bitcoin is trading at $107,932 after experiencing a 3.88% drop in the last 24 hours, according to data from crypto.news.
