Had been the 127,000 Bitcoin seized by U.S. brokers truly legal proceeds, or did they originate from the LuBian mining pool?
Abstract
- Chinese language mining pool LuBian began operations within the spring of 2020 and shortly turned the sixth-largest mining pool on the earth. In February 2021, it ceased operation.
- Solely in 2025, Arkham Intelligence discovered that in December 2020, 127,272 BTC was stolen from the mining pool. This quantity stood for 90% of all LuBian’s bitcoins.
- Later, the Division of Justice claimed these bitcoins have been forfeited from the Cambodia-based forced-labor operation Value Group.
- In January 2025, Donald Trump vowed that the U.S. would by no means promote its bitcoins. In line with Arkham Intelligence, the U.S. at present holds 326,588 BTC, together with 127,272 BTC claimed by China.
Claims coming from China
In a report, amplified by International Instances and PANews, CVERC accuses the U.S. authorities of orchestrating a 2020 theft of over 127,000 bitcoins from the LuBian mining pool.
On the present value, these bitcoins price over $13.1 billion, dwarfing the Bybit $1.5 billion heist performed in March 2025. On the time of hacking, in December 2020, the stolen BTC price over $3.5 billion, nonetheless greater than in a record-breaking Bybit hack.
Till June 2024, the funds have been stored intact on the attacker addresses for 4 years earlier than getting despatched to the U.S.-controlled addresses. PANews sees it as a sample typical of state-backed heists. Chinese language media International Instances claims that CVERC known as the case a typical quarrel of thieves. Allegedly, it was the U.S. that stole the funds in 2020.
The hack itself was found by Arkham Intelligence again in August 2025. Greater than that, it was recognized that the “stolen” property ended up within the BTC wallets managed by the U.S. authorities. Nevertheless, CVERC was the primary to say that these bitcoins have been lawfully mined by LuBian after which stolen by the U.S.-supported hackers.
Previous to China’s accusation, a crypto sleuth, ZachXBT, alleged that somebody hacked LuBian “for USG.”
The U.S., nevertheless, has a strikingly completely different account of what occurred.
The DOJ report
Earlier, in October 2025, the U.S. Division of Justice claimed that the entity behind the hack is a legal group known as Prince Group, headed by Chen Zhi.
In line with the DOJ, Value Group was concerned in a wire fraud conspiracy and human trafficking. In a press launch, the DOJ accused Prince Group of scamming residents of the U.S. and different nations by way of a “pig butchering” fraud scheme.
The DOJ indictment instantly names LuBian as one of many cash laundering operations utilized by Prince Group. In line with the report, solely 30% of the funds on LuBian addresses originated from Bitcoin mining.
In line with CVERC, preliminary findings contradicted the unlawful origins of LuBian’s Bitcoin.
The chain of occasions
The LuBian Bitcoin seizure timeline could seem complicated, because the experiences of the occasions have been lagging by years. Right here’s the chain of occasions in chronological order:
April 2020: The LuBian mining pool mines the primary bitcoins.
Could 2020: LuBain good points a 6% share of the world’s hashrate.
December 28, 2020: An unidentified hacker steals over 127,000 bitcoins from LuBian utilizing brute pressure.
July 3, 2022: Somebody (in all probability the LuBian rep) despatched a portion of BTC to the alleged attacker’s handle. Utilizing the OP_RETURN, the sender hooked up a textual content message begging the receiving social gathering to return funds and focus on a attainable reward. A number of related messages have been despatched in 2021–2024.
August 2023: The vulnerabilities within the addresses utilized by LuBian have been talked about by the Milky Unhappy researchers.
April 2024: Milky Unhappy claims that LuBian’s personal keys have been created by way of a pseudo-random quantity generator. The keys are so weak that it may take a gaming pc to brute pressure them in a matter of some days.
June 2024: The “stolen” funds transfer to a brand new handle, the place most of them keep to this present day.
October 14, 2025: The DOJ recordsdata legal costs in opposition to Chen Zhi and Value Group and claims to conduct the largest forfeiture in historical past. The U.S. reveals it seized over 127,000 BTC from Prince Group.
November 9, 2025: China accuses the U.S. of conducting a state-level theft of LuBian’s bitcoins.
Do these bitcoins belong to the U.S.?
As quickly because the DOJ launched the assertion in regards to the forfeiture of 127,000 BTC, varied crypto influencers added this quantity to the 198,000 BTC that the U.S. allegedly held at the moment. The quantity of 326,000 BTC aligns with the findings of Arkham Intelligence (and is usually primarily based on them).
Provided that there are not any publicly out there official figures or an audit of the U.S. holdings, Arkham’s analysis circulates as essentially the most exact information capturing the quantity of BTC saved by the U.S.
Nevertheless, whereas Trump banned the U.S. from promoting its bitcoins, seized property often originate from crimes, and the DOJ could suggest that the federal government return these funds to the victims.
The DOJ already beneficial returning 94,000 BTC stolen from Bitfinex to the trade. The DOJ press launch cites Legal professional Generals Pamela Bondi and Todd Blanche saying that “america will use each software at its disposal to defend victims, recuperate stolen property.”
It implies that whereas the U.S. might be holding 326,000 bitcoins, these cash may change their holders sooner or later, even regardless of the intention to withhold from promoting Bitcoin.
