An astonishing case of crypto assets theft has recently come to light, with its scale being shocking. Blockchain analysis firm Arkham Intelligence's latest investigation shows that the Chinese mining pool LuBian suffered a major cyber attack in December 2020, resulting in a loss of over 90% of its Bitcoin assets.

The severity of this incident far exceeds imagination. According to reports, hackers stole a total of 127,426 Bitcoins, which at the time's market price amounted to about 3.5 billion dollars, and considering the current Bitcoin price, the value of the stolen assets has soared to an astonishing 14.5 billion dollars. This figure makes this incident likely to become the largest theft in the history of Crypto Assets.

What is even more disturbing is that this massive theft went undetected for more than four years after it occurred. The LuBian Mining Pool once held a significant position in the global Bitcoin mining sector, with its computing power reaching 6% of the entire network, ranking among the top ten worldwide. However, this catastrophic attack seems to be the real reason behind the sudden closure of the mining pool in early 2021, rather than the regulatory pressures that were previously claimed.

Arkham's analysis indicates that this security vulnerability is likely due to a serious flaw in LuBian's private key generation mechanism, making it susceptible to brute force attacks. After the incident, LuBian attempted to plead with the hackers to return the assets by sending a large number of small transactions with accompanying messages, but these efforts went unanswered.

Currently, LuBian has only 11,886 Bitcoins left, worth approximately $1.35 billion. That mysterious hacker has become the 13th largest Bitcoin holder tracked by Arkham, with holdings even surpassing those of the hacker involved in the infamous Mt. Gox exchange theft.

This incident once again highlights the severe security challenges faced by the Crypto Assets sector. According to a report by cybersecurity company Certik, the Crypto Assets ecosystem suffered losses of approximately $153 million due to various vulnerabilities and scams in July 2024 alone. Among these, losses at exchanges reached as high as $86.6 million, while losses due to code vulnerabilities amounted to $55.4 million.

Another report from Hacken pointed out that in the first half of 2025, losses in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector reached an astonishing $3.1 billion, described as "the worst quarter since early 2023." The report also emphasized the surge in attack methods utilizing social engineering and artificial intelligence technologies, which is one of the main reasons for the sharp increase in losses.

The LuBian incident and other recent security accidents remind us that security is always an important issue that cannot be ignored in the rapidly developing world of Crypto Assets. For investors and participants, staying vigilant and taking necessary security measures has become more important than ever.