LuBian-linked wallets have shifted 15,959 BTC worth $1.83 billion across four addresses, marking their second major transfer in weeks and reviving one of cryptoโs longest-running on-chain mysteries.
Summary
- LuBian-linked wallets moved 15,959 BTC worth $1.83B across four addresses, marking their second major transfer in a week.
- The activity revives interest in the 2020 LuBian theft, when 127,426 BTC were stolen in one of cryptoโs largest hacks.
On Oct. 22, OnchainLens flagged a coordinated transfer from four wallets tied to LuBian, the defunct Chinese mining pool at the center of a 2020 Bitcoin (BTC) embezzlement case. The alert showed two identical transactions of 4,999 BTC, alongside 3,424 BTC and 2,535 BTC sent to separate addresses.
The move comes barely a week after another 11,886 BTC, worth $1.3 billion, left LuBian-linked wallets, suggesting renewed control over funds once considered frozen under U.S. oversight.
A four-year mystery that never really went cold
The latest move by LuBian-tagged wallets revives one of the most dramatic unsolved thefts in Bitcoinโs history. In December 2020, the once-prominent Chinese mining pool claimed to have been hacked for 127,426 BTC, then worth $3.5 billion and nearly $14.5 billion at todayโs prices,
According to Arkham Intelligence, the attackers exploited vulnerabilities in the minerโs private key generation system, draining over 90% of LuBianโs holdings overnight, followed by an additional $6 million in Bitcoin and USDT the next day.
The timing was a brutal irony; LuBian had rapidly climbed the ranks in early 2020 to become the worldโs sixth-largest mining pool, all while publicly branding itself as โthe safest high-yielding mining pool in the world.โ
In a desperate attempt to recover the assets, LuBian took the unusual step of communicating directly with the attacker on-chain. Using Bitcoinโs OP_RETURN function, they left a message pleading, โTo the whitehat who is saving our asset, you can contact usโฆ to discuss the return of asset and your reward.โ The plea went unanswered.
Meanwhile, the transfer comes after the DOJ on October 14 announced one of the largest crypto forfeiture cases in history, targeting the Prince Holding Group and its founder, Chen Zhi.
U.S. prosecutors filed a complaint for roughly $14.4 billion in Bitcoin tied to an alleged international fraud network. The DOJ stated that Zhi and his co-conspirators used companies, including LuBian, to launder illicit proceeds and generate โclean Bitcoin dissociated from criminal proceeds.โ
Bitcoin traded at $107,932 after tumbling 3.88% in the last 24 hours, according to crypto.news data.
