Massive 2020 Bitcoin Heist Unveiled by Arkham

Arkham Intelligence revealed a massive Bitcoin theft from China’s LuBian mining pool. The heist involved 127,426 BTC, stolen in December 2020 and is now worth $14.5 billion. This theft was only made public in August 2025.

LuBian, a key player in China’s Bitcoin mining industry, revealed no leadership comments. Blockchain investigator Arkham Intelligence identified insecure algorithms for key generation, making them vulnerable. This breach is now considered the largest in crypto history by dollar value.

The Bitcoin market saw no major disruption despite the heist revelation. Funds remain dormant, and Arkham’s analysis shows that the stolen BTC mostly stayed unmoved. The hack doesn’t appear to have affected Bitcoin’s ecosystem stability.

Financial impacts were severe for LuBian. As of now, they have managed to salvage 11,886 BTC, valued at about $1.35 billion. Chinese and Western regulators have yet to issue official statements on the incident.

Although LuBian managed to recover a small portion of their loss, and they sent pleas for fund return using OP_RETURN messages, no recovery plan is evident. Community and developer reactions remain largely unresponsive in primary communication channels.

Historically, this hack surpasses previous incidents, notably the 2014 Mt. Gox attack. However, it sheds light on the potential for future regulatory scrutiny and imposes lessons in securing cryptocurrency assets to avoid such security vulnerabilities in the future. Insights into Bitcoin network activity and analysis provide a broader perspective on this issue.