Arkham Reveals the 127,426-BTC LuBian Mining-Pool Theft
Arkham Intelligence publicly disclosed that the LuBian mining pool had lost about 127,426 BTC in a previously unreported 2020 theft. The August disclosure materially changed the historical record of major Bitcoin security incidents even though the underlying theft occurred years earlier.
On August 2, 2025, blockchain-intelligence firm Arkham Intelligence publicly disclosed what it described as an enormous, previously unreported theft from LuBian, a Bitcoin mining pool that had once represented a meaningful share of global hashrate. Arkham traced the loss to December 2020 and estimated that roughly 127,426 BTC had been taken. At Bitcoin prices at the time of the theft, the loss was worth several billion dollars; by 2025 the same coins were worth far more.
The disclosure date and theft date were different historical moments. The loss itself dated to December 2020; August 2025 was when the event entered the public record through Arkham's attribution. Arkham said the stolen coins had remained largely dormant for years, helping explain how such a large loss could remain outside the mainstream account of Bitcoin mining and security history for so long.
LuBian was not merely an ordinary wallet holder. It had been a significant mining pool, so the disclosure linked one of the largest known Bitcoin thefts to infrastructure involved directly in producing blocks. The episode also illustrated the limits of contemporaneous visibility in an open ledger: blockchain transactions were public, but attribution and understanding of what those movements represented emerged only later through forensic analysis.
For Bitcoin history, the August 2025 disclosure changed the ranking and understanding of major thefts rather than creating a new 2025 loss. The underlying December 2020 theft remains a separate historical stage and should be considered when that month is researched.