China's National Computer virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) released a technical report on November 9 regarding the US government's seizure of a large amount of Bitcoin and the indictment of owner Chen Zhi - founder of Prince Group of Cambodia - for being accused of masterminding a large-scale cryptocurrency scam.
CVERC's report recreates the entire progress of the Bitcoin theft, analyzes each attack stage and assesses Bitcoin's security mechanism.
On December 29, 2020, a serious attack on the LuBian mine occurred, causing about 127,272 bit bitons to be stolen (at that time worth about 3.5 billion USD, equivalent to nearly 15 billion USD). This amount is owned by Chen Zhi - Chairman of Prince Group.
Accordingly, on December 29, 2020 (Beijing time), hackers took advantage of a system vulnerability in the LuBian mine and within 2 hours withdrew 127,272 bit bit bitons from their target wallets. All suspicious transactions have the same fee, suggesting that the attackers used an automated command to transfer money in large numbers. The delivery addresses are under the control of LuBian mine - the operator of Prince Group - while the receiving address is still anonymous.
Throughout the period from December 30, 2020 to June 22, 2024, the stolen Bitcoin was almost un touched, except for a few small transactions that were said to be for testing.
After Bitcoin was stolen, Chen Zhi and Prince Group left messages on blockchain multiple times in early 2021 and July 2022, asking hackers to return the lost Bitcoin. LuBian sent more than 1,500 messages to hackers to negotiate and give a ransom. However, the hackers did not respond.
All of these bit bitcos are still in the wallet that the attacker has controlled for nearly 4 years and are not withdrawn or traded quickly like in other thefts.
It was not until June 2024 that this new Bitcoin was transferred to a new wallet and continued to be there.
On October 14, 2025, the US Department of Justice announced the indictment of Chen Zhi and announced the seizure of 127,000 bit bit bit bitons related to Chen Zhi and Prince Group. Evidence shows that the amount of Bitcoin seized by the US coincides with the amount of Bitcoin stolen from the LuBian mine in 2020.
Through a transparent book that can trace the origin of Bitcoin, CVERC has analyzed and traced the origin of this huge amount of Bitcoin.
In total, about 127,272 bitcos have been traced from many sources: About 17,800 bitcos from independent mining activities, about 2,300 bitcos from joint mines and about 107,100 bitcos from other exchanges and channels.
According to the report, this attack led to the dismantling of the LuBian mine in practice and caused damage equivalent to more than 90% of the mine's assets at that time.
