11 hours ago
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Another batch of coins from the Lubian miner wallets has been moved. The transaction comes as some of the coins were about to be confiscated into the reserves of the US Government.
Another batch of old BTC from the Lubian miner wallets has moved. A single transaction moved 9,756 BTC, just as analysts were discussing whether the coins were still controllable and movable. The transaction shifted the coins into two new addresses, one containing 1,000 BTC, and the rest on another address.
The coins originated from the remnant wallets of Lubian.com, which were not affected by the hack and remained controllable by the mining pool. The wallet retains 2,129 BTC.
As Cryptopolitan reported earlier, the Lubian mining pool fell prey to a hack in late 2020, but the wallets and the amount stolen was unveiled by Arkham only in 2025. The coins are now being forfeited to the US Government.
The recent coin movement suggests Lubian has been eager to retain ownership of its remaining reserves, which have appreciated significantly in the last year. The address is not part of the hacker’s stash, which for now remains idle.
Lubian hacker funds remain unmoved
According to Arkham’s tracking service, the coins on all known Lubian hacker addresses remain unmoved.
While there is a legal call to forfeit the assets, there are doubts about the controlling entity for the coins and whether they can be moved to new addresses.
Even if the US Government decides not to sell the coins, not controlling their private keys also raises the issue of the true value owned.
While the Government aims to build a reserve of BTC, simply laying claim to idle addresses has never worked as a form of BTC ownership. This means the reserve may only be valid if the USA moves the coins to fully controlled wallets.
Before now, the Lubian hacker consolidated some of the coins in the summer of 2024, suggesting the miner wallets may not be locked forever.
Lubian wallets linked to weak private keys
The mining pool reportedly used an algorithm to create private keys, leading to a list of insecure wallets. The US Government announced the seized assets based on a list of wallets, so far not performing any transactions. Additionally, one address holding around 154 BTC was omitted in the recent report.
However, the hacker’s ownership is not conclusively connected to those private keys. Lubian additionally retained 11,886 BTC, which were still controllable and securely stored. The Lubian.com wallet was actually the original sender of the recent transaction.
The large-scale shifts happen at a time when even treasuries of 100 BTC are seen as significant. Lubian has not shown any plans on selling the BTC or using it for other purposes. The wallet that moved the funds is outside the scope of forfeiture, but the coins may have been moved as a precaution.
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