China Blames US for $13 Billion Bitcoin Heist
China’s leading cybersecurity agency has charged the US government with orchestrating one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts globally, valued at approximately $13 billion in Bitcoin. The agency asserts that the American government orchestrated the 2020 hack of the LuBian Bitcoin mining pool, representing China’s most recent effort to associate significant cyberattacks with the US, according to reports. Reports says that the theft of 127,272 Bitcoin from LuBian in December 2020 was a “state-level hacker operation,” and the agency stated that the gradual and discreet movement of the stolen coins suggested a government-backed operation, rather than a typical cybercrime.
The report, published last week, linked the stolen Bitcoin from LuBian, previously one of the largest mining pools globally, to tokens that were subsequently seized by the US government. US authorities stated that those assets were linked to Chen Zhi, chairman of Cambodia’s Prince Group, who faced charges in October for wire fraud and money laundering. On October 8, an indictment was filed in New York, where US prosecutors alleged that Chen and his associates engaged in money laundering to support extensive crypto mining operations, including LuBian, and the indictment noted that wallet addresses associated with LuBian “received large sums of cryptocurrency from sources unrelated to new mining.”
The US Department of Justice has filed a civil forfeiture complaint, seizing 127,271 Bitcoin, which it describes as the largest-ever crypto forfeiture action by the US government, and federal prosecutors involved in the case refrained from commenting on the timing or method of obtaining the Bitcoin, as per reports. The Chinese cybersecurity agency’s report claims that US hackers began stealing Chen’s Bitcoin as early as 2020. “The US government may have already used hacking techniques as early as 2020 to steal the 127,000 Bitcoins held by Chen Zhi,” the report stated, calling it a classic “‘black eats black’ operation orchestrated by a state-level hacking organisation.”
The allegation contributes to a growing list of recent assertions from China regarding US cyberattacks, and earlier this year, Beijing claimed that Washington took advantage of a vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange servers to infiltrate Chinese companies. In October, China asserted it had “irrefutable evidence” of a US cyberattack aimed at the National Time Service Centre, although analysts have observed that China’s claims frequently lack comprehensive technical evidence, in contrast to certain public attributions made by the US against foreign entities. Meanwhile, Chen Zhi’s lawyer has requested additional time in court to track down the stolen Bitcoin associated with LuBian, and attorney Matthew L Schwartz, representing Boies Schiller Flexner, contended that the government’s assertions regarding Chen were “seriously misguided. As we explained in our submission to the Court, we are working closely with cryptocurrency experts to trace the Bitcoin that the government seized over a year ago, and which was stolen back in 2020,” Schwartz stated, and prosecutors have confirmed that Chen is not in US custody, despite the indictment being unsealed last month.
