$3.5 Billion Bitcoin Heist From 2020 Quietly Uncovered — The Biggest Crypto Hack in History

[AIcash]

A jaw-dropping 127,426 BTC — worth around $3.5 billion in 2020 and more than $14.5 billion today — was stolen in what is now confirmed to be the largest crypto heist ever, and no one even knew… until now.

According to new research by blockchain sleuths at Arkham Intelligence, the victim was LuBian, a once-prominent Chinese Bitcoin mining pool that ranked 6th globally at its peak. The hack occurred on December 28, 2020, and went completely unreported — by both the attackers and the victims.
A Silent Attack, a Massive Haul

The threat actor drained nearly 90% of LuBian’s Bitcoin holdings before the team could respond, salvaging just 11,886 BTC into secure recovery wallets.

The heist flew under the radar because LuBian didn't make it public. Instead, they tried to reach the hacker 1,516 times via OP_RETURN messages — metadata stored in Bitcoin transactions — essentially begging the attacker to return the funds. That alone cost LuBian around 1.4 BTC in transaction fees.

Arkham's analysis suggests the attacker brute-forced private keys, likely exploiting LuBian's weak key generation algorithm that relied on flawed randomness.
🧠 Lessons From the Shadows

The stolen BTC, now valued at over $14.5 billion, was quietly laundered across the blockchain, never triggering the alarm bells that usually follow massive exploits.

This raises serious red flags for:

✅ Key generation security

✅ Cold wallet protection

✅ Incident transparency

❌ Weak operational security from major mining pools

And yes, this overshadows even the Bybit hack ($1.5B), the CoinEx breach, and the shocking $330M loss from a single elderly victim earlier this year.
️ Takeaway for Miners & Crypto Holders

Whether you’re running a solo rig or managing billions in assets, this story is a brutal reminder:
A wallet is only as secure as its private key.
Use strong, truly random generators.
Avoid flawed or predictable key logic.
And if you’re building, assume you’re a target.

This wasn’t just a hack.
It was a ghost story.
And it just became very real.

[Maxwell]

The fact that 127,000+ BTC vanished without anyone noticing for years is chilling. Shows how vulnerable even major players can be if they neglect basic security principles like proper key generation

[Nahiar806]

LuBian sending over 1,500 messages via OP_RETURN feels like a digital cry for help — heartbreaking and surreal. It’s like watching someone beg into the void while $14.5B slips away

[rafihasan]

This changes the conversation around crypto security. If a top-10 mining pool can lose billions silently, imagine how many smaller incidents go completely unnoticed. Total wake-up call.