Revealing: The Largest BTC Theft Case in the History of Crypto Assets

Recently, a major event that shocked the Crypto Assets community has come to light. According to on-chain data analysis, in December 2020, a well-known mining pool experienced what can be called the largest Bitcoin theft in history, with more than 127,000 BTC stolen, worth about $3.5 billion at the time, which has now risen to around $14.5 billion.

This mining pool controlled nearly 6% of the Bitcoin network's hash power resources in 2020, making it one of the largest BTC mining pools in the world at that time. It is reported that the mining pool mainly deployed mining equipment in China and Iran, founded and managed by Chinese miners, and is classified as a private mining pool.

According to statistics from the data platform, this mining pool started its mining operations in March 2020, with its first block produced in April. By May 2020, its hash rate accounted for about 6% of the Bitcoin network. However, after February 28, 2021, the mining activities of this pool were terminated.

On December 28, 2020, this mining pool was hit by its first hacker attack, with over 90% of the BTC stolen. On December 29, approximately 6 million USD worth of BTC and USDT were stolen from a related active address. On December 31, the mining pool transferred the remaining funds to other wallets.

Interestingly, on-chain data shows that the mining pool has repeatedly sent on-chain messages to the hacker's address requesting the return of the stolen funds. These messages were sent through 1516 transactions, costing a total of 1.4 BTC, indicating that these messages indeed came from the victims rather than being fabricated by other hackers.

It is currently speculated that this mining pool may have used an algorithm vulnerable to brute-force attacks to generate private keys, which became the breakthrough point for the hacker attack. As of now, the addresses related to this mining pool still hold approximately 11,886 BTC, worth about 1.36 billion USD.

On the other hand, the hackers still retain the stolen BTC, with the last on-chain activity occurring in July 2024, when a wallet consolidation operation was performed. This stolen asset has made the hackers the 13th largest individual holder of Bitcoin according to statistics from a data platform, even surpassing the hacker from the famous Mt. Gox exchange theft.

It is worth noting that prior to the hacker attack, this mining pool's mining operations seemed to be running at full speed. From May 2020 to February 2021, it mined an average of 174 blocks per month, accumulating over 16,200 BTC. At the price peak in April 2021, the value of these Bitcoins once exceeded 1 billion dollars.

Today, this once leading mining pool has ceased operations, leaving behind this massive theft case that has been dormant for nearly 5 years, becoming an important chapter in the history of Crypto Assets. This incident once again reminds us that in the rapidly evolving world of Crypto Assets, security should always be the primary consideration.