Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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China’s cybersecurity agency has accused the U.S. government of orchestrating a cyber theft worth about $13 billion in bitcoin.
U.S. Government Orchestrated the LuBian Mining Pool Hack, Says Chinese Agency
China’s cybersecurity agency has accused the U.S. government of orchestrating a $13 billion bitcoin theft. This is according to a report by Bloomberg on Tuesday.
Per the report, the agency accused the United States of stealing more than 120,000 bitcoin from the Chinese-based LuBian mining pool in December 2020. This incident was identified by Arkham Intelligence as one of the largest crypto heists on record.
According to the Chinese National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center, the incident was a “state-level hacker operation” likely led by the U.S. The agency added that the “quiet and delayed movement” of the stolen bitcoin suggested government involvement rather than typical criminal behavior.
The LuBian mining pool was launched in April 2020 and quickly became one of the largest mining pools on the Bitcoin network. However, the mining pool was shut down after the hack wiped out most of its Bitcoin holdings.
Bloomberg added that the Chinese report linking the U.S. to the LuBian theft was first published last week. The Chinese agency also claimed that the stolen bitcoins are tied to tokens seized by the United States in its case against Chinese national Chen Zhi, who faces charges of wire fraud and money laundering. The report added that the agency called the operation a “classic ‘black eats black’ move orchestrated by a state-level hacking organization.
Bitcoin is currently trading above $103k after adding less than 1% to its value in the last 24 hours.
