Bitcoin Heist of ’20: The $14B Fiasco That Slept Like a Baby 🐘💰

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Well, strike me pink! Arkham’s been busy with a tale so tall it’d make a miner blush. Turns out, in 2020, a mining pool called LuBian-name as unassuming as a mud puddle-lost 127,000 BTC and kept it a secret tighter than a clam’s wallet. The coins? Still sitting there, like a ghost town in the Wild West, untouched for five years. No press release, no “help us!” cry, just… silence. Oh, the irony!

  • In December 2020, LuBian, a mining pool with a hash rate that could’ve powered a small civilization, lost 127,000 BTC. The coins vanished, but the pool kept mining like nothing happened.
  • For nearly five years, LuBian ghosted the crypto world, leaving no breadcrumbs. Arkham Intelligence, in 2025, decided to dig-and found a goldmine of chaos.
  • The theft? A masterclass in bad luck: LuBian’s wallet keys were as secure as a screen door on a submarine. An attacker brute-forced the keys like they were guessing a neighbor’s Wi-Fi password.
  • 127,000 BTC, now worth $14B, remains frozen. The hacker’s holding more Bitcoin than most empires, and they haven’t so much as blinked. It’s like stealing a treasure chest and leaving it in the front yard.

A Tale of Two Years: 2020’s Theft, 2025’s Revelation

December 2020 brought a storm to LuBian. The mining pool, once a titan with 6% of Bitcoin’s hash rate, vanished overnight. 127,000 BTC disappeared in two transactions-$3.5B in 2020 money. But who cared? The world was too busy with pandemic chaos to notice a few billion vanish. LuBian’s exit? Smooth as a greased pig at a county fair.

No press conference. No “We’ve been hacked!” alert. Just… gone. Like a magician who forgot the rabbit.

Fast-forward to August 2025: Arkham Intelligence, with the tenacity of a bloodhound, sniffed out the truth. Turns out, LuBian’s keys were weaker than a toddler’s handshake. The attacker cracked them like a nut and walked off with a treasure that now makes the Great Pyramids look like sandcastles.

BREAKING: ARKHAM UNCOVERS $3.5B HEIST – THE LARGEST EVER

LuBian, a mining pool with digs in China and Iran, lost 127,426 BTC in 2020. Now worth $14B… and still chilling. – Arkham (@arkham) August 2, 2025

Arkham’s sleuthing revealed that LuBian tried to bargain with the hacker. They sent 1.4 BTC in transaction fees (like throwing confetti) with messages begging for mercy. One note even said, “Hey, let’s chat! Reward if you’re nice.” The hacker? Silent as a tomb. Maybe they’re just waiting for Bitcoin to hit $200k and retire to a private island.

LuBian: The Mining Pool That Could

LuBian rose like a phoenix in 2020, becoming a crypto giant with hash rates that could’ve powered a thousand cities. But their name? “Roadside.” Oh, how humble! Like a king calling himself “Baker Joe.”

By 2021, they vanished. The world assumed it was China’s crypto crackdown. But Arkham’s got news for you: it was a heist! LuBian’s exit? Less “regulatory shutdown” and more “we just lost all our money.”

Arkham’s Grand Detective Work

Arkham’s investigation? A Sherlock Holmes-level detective story. They traced two BTC transfers in 2020-big ones-to wallets that haven’t moved since. Then came the 1,500 micro-transactions with pleas in the OP_RETURN field. It’s like leaving a note on a thief’s porch: “Please don’t hurt us.”

The real kicker? LuBian’s keys were generated with 32-bit entropy. That’s like using a stick to lock a door. An attacker could brute-force them with a laptop and a coffee. No alarms, no fuss-just a silent heist.

The New King of Crypto Heists

This theft now tops the charts. Mt. Gox? A mere $450M. Bitfinex? $72M. Even the Bybit hack? $1.5B. But LuBian? $14B. The hacker’s now the 13th-largest BTC holder. They could buy every Bitcoin miner on Earth and still have change for popcorn.

And the coins? Still untouched. No mixers, no exchanges. Just a digital vault so quiet, even the blockchain’s asleep. Arkham’s the only one who noticed. Without them, this theft would’ve been history’s best-kept secret.

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2025-08-05 19:15