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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A Rare Victory for Solo Miners

A solo miner successfully mined block 907283, which contained 4,038 transactions and total transaction fees of $3,436. The miner, operating via the Solo CK pool, managed to solve the puzzle and claim the reward. Despite rising network difficulty and hashrate, solo miners continue to occasionally add blocks to the Bitcoin blockchain.

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Earlier this year, in February 2025, another solo miner successfully mined a block and earned a reward of $350,000. Additionally, in July, a miner using only 2.3 petahashes managed to mine a block and secure a similar reward.

Increasing Network Difficulty and Hashrate Pressure on Professional Miners

The current Bitcoin network difficulty stands at about 126 trillion, close to all-time highs. This makes mining even harder for solo miners but also presents challenges for large-scale commercial mining companies. The rising hashrate and difficulty levels require miners to use greater computational power, driving up energy consumption.

To cope with these challenges, many major mining companies are diversifying into AI data centers and high-performance computing to offset the declining profitability of traditional mining.

Challenges of a Competitive Mining Industry

The competitive landscape of Bitcoin mining is forcing companies to seek cheaper energy resources to remain profitable. The ongoing rise in network difficulty, along with reduced block rewards, means miners must expend more resources to solve a single block and claim a reward of 3.125 BTC, worth approximately $373,000.

Additionally, weather events and climate conditions have affected mining operations. For instance, in June, several miners in Texas had to limit their energy usage to avoid paying peak demand charges, reducing short-term block production.

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