Hackers move $1.8 billion in bitcoin stolen from Chinese mining pool LuBian to four wallets: onchain analysts
Wallets linked to the hacked Chinese mining pool LuBian have transferred 15,959 bitcoins, worth an estimated $1.83 billion at current prices, to four separate addresses in what appears to be a coordinated transaction.
Web3 analyst OnchainLens, citing Arkham data, published a thread detailing the breakdown of the outflows. Two tranches of 4,999 BTC ($539.8 million each) were transferred to two separate addresses, along with 3,424 BTC ($369.7 million) and 2,535 BTC ($274.4 million) to complete the quartet movement.
LuBian, once a relatively obscure Chinese mining pool that later grew significantly, has been the subject of multiple reports in recent weeks, including The Block's coverage of the incident, which estimated the stolen coins' present-day value in the billions.
The previously undisclosed 2020 heist involved 127,426 BTC, a massive stash valued at approximately $14.5 billion as of August. That reporting highlighted how opaque custody and internal controls at some smaller pools created opportunities for large-scale misappropriation.
At the time of the theft in December 2020, the bitcoin haul was worth around $3.5 billion, making it the largest single crypto theft by dollar value ever recorded at that point. For comparison, the infamous Mt. Gox collapse involved a larger bitcoin count — roughly 744,000 BTC — but occurred when bitcoin's price was far lower, resulting in a total loss of only a few hundred million dollars at the time.
Blockchain watchers will likely monitor whether the four destination wallets consolidate funds, transfer coins to known exchange deposit addresses, or engage with mixing and laundering services, as is typical with stolen cryptocurrency wealth.
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