China’s cybersecurity agency has pointed the finger at Washington for the 2020 hack of the LuBian mining pool.
According to Bloomberg, China’s cybersecurity agency has accused the U.S. government of being responsible for a bitcoin theft worth approximately $13 billion.
The incident dates back to December 2020, when more than 120,000 bitcoins disappeared from the Chinese mining pool LuBian. The hack had already been identified by Arkham Intelligence in August as one of the largest thefts ever recorded. The mining pool, which had been operating since April 2020, had quickly become the sixth largest on the Bitcoin network before shutting down permanently following the attack.
The Chinese National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) described the incident as a “state-level hacking operation”, likely orchestrated by the United States. According to the agency, the “silent and delayed movement” of the stolen bitcoins suggests government involvement rather than that of ordinary cybercriminals. Such operational behavior, the CVERC stated, is typical of state-sponsored activities.
China also claimed that the stolen bitcoins is linked to the funds seized by the United States in the legal case against Chen Zhi, a Chinese citizen accused of wire fraud and money laundering. The CVERC’s analysis came a few weeks after the U.S. announced the forfeiture of 127,271 BTC in the criminal case against the Prince Group founder, who reportedly owned the bitcoins held by LuBian before the hack. “The U.S. government may have used hacking techniques as early as 2020 to steal the 127,000 bitcoins held by Chen Zhi,” the Chinese report claimed.
