Asger Risom
China has accused the United States of carrying out one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in history.
China has accused the United States of carrying out one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in history, claiming that American authorities secretly seized more than 127,000 Bitcoin—worth around $13 billion today—from a Chinese mining pool in 2020.
Beijing calls it a “state-level hacker operation”
The allegations were published last week in a report by China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center, a government cybersecurity agency. The report describes the incident as a “state-level hacker operation” because of its methodical and covert nature, contrasting it with the “smash-and-grab” tactics typical of cybercriminals.
According to the document, the Bitcoin was taken from the LuBian mining pool in December 2020. At the time, LuBian was one of China’s largest crypto operations, and the theft quickly became one of the biggest in the history of digital currencies.
U.S. confiscation connected to Cambodian tycoon
The report claims that the stolen Bitcoin later appeared among crypto assets confiscated by the U.S. government from Chen Zhi, chairman of Cambodia’s Prince Group. Chen was charged with fraud and money laundering in October over his alleged links to a vast online scam network known as “pig butchering.”
Chinese authorities say the timing and size of the seizures point to the same digital wallets connected to the LuBian theft, implying that the U.S. government may have taken control of the funds under the guise of criminal prosecution.
Washington has not commented on the accusation, and court filings related to the Chen case do not specify how the seized cryptocurrency was obtained.
“Black eats black”
“This is a classic ‘black eats black’ operation,” the Chinese report says, using an idiom meaning one criminal exploiting another. The document suggests that U.S. intelligence agencies have been targeting Chinese digital assets as part of a broader campaign of “technological and financial containment.”
While the claim has not been independently verified, it comes amid worsening tensions between the two countries over technology, trade, and cybersecurity. In recent years, both sides have accused each other of state-backed hacking, espionage, and digital theft.
Sources: Chinese National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center report; Reuters; Bloomberg; CoinDesk; South China Morning Post
This article is made and published by Asger Risom, who may have used AI in the preparation
