No credible evidence US government hacked Chinese Bitcoin wallets to “steal” $13 billion BTC
Independent forensics link the 2020 LuBian Bitcoin drain to a known weak-key flaw, but do not support China's claim of a US government hack.Summary
China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) accused the US government of hacking Chinese Bitcoin wallets in 2020 to steal approximately 127,000 BTC, which are now in US custody. However, independent open-source forensics by groups like MilkSad and Arkham trace the massive 2020 drain to the exploitation of a known vulnerability: weak random-number seeding (MT19937 with only 32 bits of entropy) in the software used by the LuBian mining pool, allowing for brute-force attacks.
While the technical details of the exploit—including address batching and fixed fee patterns—align with independent research, the attribution to a US state actor rests on circumstantial inference regarding the coins' eventual seizure by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in connection with alleged fraud by Chen Zhi and the Prince Group. Forensic teams tracing the flow stop short of naming the 2020 exploiter, focusing only on the method and the link between the drained funds and the later DOJ forfeiture action.
There are three main interpretations: 1) An unknown party exploited the weak keys in 2020, and US authorities later seized the dormant funds; 2) The drain was an opaque internal movement within the Prince Group's network; or 3) The US government executed the 2020 hack, as alleged by CVERC. The first two interpretations align with the evidence presented in technical reports and DOJ filings, while the third lacks independent technical substantiation.
(Source：CryptoSlate)