LuBian-Linked Wallet Moves $1.3B in Bitcoin

A wallet linked to the Chinese Bitcoin mining operation LuBian transferred nearly $1.3 billion in Bitcoin a day after the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) moved to seize $15 billion in Bitcoin allegedly stolen from the mining pool in 2020. 

On Wednesday, blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain flagged the movement, noting that a wallet linked to LuBian transferred 9,757 Bitcoin (BTC), worth approximately $1.1 billion at the time, to new wallets after a three-year period of dormancy. 

According to Arkham Intelligence, the wallet later transferred another 2,129 BTC, worth about $238 million, on Wednesday, hours after the first transfer. This totals 11,886 Bitcoin, worth approximately $1.3 billion at current market prices. 

An investigation by Arkham on Aug. 3 claimed that in 2020, LuBian was hacked for 127,426 BTC, worth about $3.5 billion at the time. Arkham said the platform moved its 11,886 BTC to recovery wallets, an amount that matches the recently moved LuBian-linked Bitcoin. 

DOJ revealed $15 billion Bitcoin seizure case against a LuBian-linked company

The latest wallet activity occurred less than a day after the DOJ unsealed an indictment involving Prince Holding Group, a Cambodia-based company accused of orchestrating large-scale crypto fraud schemes. 

On Tuesday, US prosecutors filed a forfeiture complaint for the roughly $14.4 billion tied to the alleged scam network led by Chen Zhi, the group’s founder.

The DOJ said the Bitcoin in question is already in custody and will be subject to forfeiture following Zhi’s potential conviction on wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges. 

According to the DOJ, Zhi and his co-conspirators laundered the illicit proceeds of their operations to fund large-scale crypto mining operations.

This included a Laos-based company called Warp Data, its Texas-based subsidiary and the China-based LuBian, which emerged as the sixth-largest Bitcoin mining pool in 2020.

The DOJ said these companies “produced large sums of clean Bitcoin dissociated from criminal proceeds.”

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Bitcoin seizure could place funds into the US reserves

If the court approves the forfeiture, the recovered Bitcoin could become one of the largest additions to the US government’s digital asset holdings to date.

In March, Trump signed an executive order establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve. 

At the time, White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks said the reserve will be capitalized with Bitcoin owned by the federal government that was “forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings.”