China’s national cyber defense agency has sparked significant controversy. The National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) published a technical report this Sunday. The report alleges a purported United States role in the theft of 127,272 Bitcoin (BTC) from the LuBian mining pool. This event fuels the LuBian Bitcoin hack controversy.
The CVERC’s analysis emerges weeks after a key action in the US. The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a civil forfeiture complaint in mid-October. They seek to seize 127,271 BTC, valued at $14.5 billion. These funds are linked to a case against Chen Zhi, founder of the Prince Group. The DOJ statement confirmed that “those funds are presently in the custody of the US government.” Furthermore, they labeled the action as the “largest in the history of the Department of Justice.”
The Chinese report highlights a crucial omission. The US government has not disclosed how it obtained access to the funds. The CVERC claims Washington has controlled the assets for over a year. They cite data from the Arkham platform. According to this data, an address labeled “LuBian.com Hacker” transferred 120,576 BTC to a US address on July 5, 2024. This original hack occurred in December 2020.
A state operation instead of a simple theft?
The CVERC argues that the stolen Bitcoin remained dormant for nearly four years. This inactivity, according to the agency, “is clearly inconsistent with the nature of ordinary hackers.” Common hackers seek to cash out their profits quickly. The Chinese state agency went further. It suggested that “it is more like a precise operation orchestrated by a state-owned hacking organization.” The report adds that Chen Zhi sent messages on the blockchain to the hacker. He offered rewards for the return of the BTC, but never received a response.
This LuBian Bitcoin hack controversy adds a new geopolitical dimension. It concerns one of the most mysterious cryptocurrency thefts in history. The batch of funds derived from LuBian represents a significant portion. They make up at least 39% of the total 326.5K BTC held by the US government. Tension is rising as President Donald Trump recently declared that the US is “far ahead of China” in cryptocurrency adoption.
