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Exposed: Chinese Mining Titan LuBian Behind $14.5B Bitcoin Heist—Largest Crypto Theft in History

Exposed: Chinese Mining Titan LuBian Behind $14.5B Bitcoin Heist—Largest Crypto Theft in History

Author:
Bitcoinist
Published:
2025-08-04 23:00:35
7
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Blockchain's worst nightmare just got a villain. Chinese mining giant LuBian stands accused of orchestrating the $14.5B Bitcoin heist—an audacious grab that rewrites the record books for crypto crime.

How they pulled it off? That’s the billion-dollar question—or rather, the 14.5-billion-dollar one. Forensic chain analysts are tracing digital breadcrumbs, but insiders whisper about compromised nodes, spoofed transactions, and a trail of dust payments.

The fallout? A market already skeptical of centralized mining power just got fresh ammunition. Meanwhile, regulators are scrambling—because nothing inspires bureaucratic creativity like the scent of lost tax revenue.

Cynical take: At least Wall Street’s robbery happens with a smile and a prospectus.

bitcoin btc btcusd

A Flawed Private Key and a Silent Giant

The hackers reportedly exploited weak private key generation, a fundamental security flaw that allowed them to drain over 90% of LuBian’s BTC in a single attack on December 28, 2020. Two days later, an additional $6 million in BTC and USDT was siphoned from another LuBian-linked wallet operating on the Bitcoin Omni layer.

In a desperate attempt to recover the funds, LuBian issued over 1,500 Bitcoin transactions embedded with OP_RETURN messages, directly pleading with the attacker to return the stolen BTC. Despite these efforts, no response was ever received.

Today, that hacker’s wallet has gone largely untouched, with its last significant movement being a wallet consolidation in July 2024. According to Arkham, this dormant address is now the 13th largest Bitcoin wallet in existence, ahead of the infamous Mt. Gox hacker.

How the Bitcoin Heist Implicates Crypto Security

This massive breach not only surpasses all previous crypto hacks, including the $1.5 billion Bybit exploit of 2025, but also exposes deep vulnerabilities in older blockchain infrastructure and private key protocols.

With $3.1 billion already lost to crypto hacks in the first half of 2025, experts are urging mining pools and exchanges to strengthen security practices.

As the LuBian case resurfaces, it serves as a stark reminder: in crypto, weak security can cost billions, and stay hidden for years.

Cover image from ChatGPT, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

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