Yigit Taha OZTURK 
A massive heist that remained unreported for years has finally come to light, marking the largest cryptocurrency hack in history. According to Arkham Intelligence, Chinese mining pool LuBian was hacked in 2020, with 127,426 Bitcoin valued at approximately $3.5 billion stolen, making it the biggest crypto hack of all time.
LuBian Mining Pool Hacked in December 2020
Arkham Intelligence uncovered the hack on Saturday, revealing that the LuBian mining pool, which was the sixth-largest BTC mining pool at the time, was attacked on December 28, 2020. About 90% of its Bitcoin was stolen by hackers before the pool managed to transfer its remaining 11,886 BTC to recovery wallets. Neither LuBian nor the hackers reported the attack at the time.
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The hackers embedded OP_RETURN messages in 1,516 transactions to store wallet addresses. Arkham also noted that LuBian used a private key generation algorithm that was susceptible to brute-force attacks, which may have been the vulnerability exploited by the hackers.
The Aftermath and Crypto Security Warning
At the time of the hack, the stolen Bitcoin was worth $3.5 billion, but now, at current prices, it’s valued at around $14.5 billion. Arkham highlights this incident as a critical reminder for crypto users to implement robust private key management and security practices. The breach also serves as a warning for all cryptocurrency investors about the risks of weak algorithms and poor cybersecurity practices.
A Turning Point in Crypto Theft History
The LuBian hack surpasses the $1.5 billion ByBit hack from earlier this year, which was previously considered the largest crypto theft in history. This event, along with several other notable hacks, highlights the ever-present threats in the crypto space. In April, an elderly individual lost $330 million in Bitcoin via a social engineering attack, which was later laundered through 300 different wallet addresses.
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