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The growing tensions between the US and China have spread to the world of cryptocurrencies, where Beijing’s cybersecurity officials have made significant claims against Washington. The National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) in China said on November 11, 2025, that the U.S. government was behind the theft of more than 120,000 Bitcoin from the LuBian mining pool in December 2020. This theft, which is worth about $13 billion at today’s values, is one of the biggest crypto heists ever. The claim makes an already tense relationship between the two countries even worse.
CVERC called the operation a “state-level hacking effort,” saying that the way the money moved was too complicated, too slow, and too secret for it to be normal criminal behavior. Bloomberg wrote a lot about the article that came out last week. It says that the theft is part of a bigger U.S. plan to stop Chinese-linked crypto businesses. Even while Washington hasn’t publicly responded yet, the charges have sparked speculation in markets around the world, raising questions about the role of nation-states in cyber warfare that targets digital assets.
The LuBian Robbery
Launched in April 2020, LuBian rapidly became the sixth-largest Bitcoin mining pool in the world, thanks to the massive amount of hashing power it got from Chinese miners. Mining pools like LuBian combine computing power to solve blocks more quickly and share the benefits among all the people that take part. At its peak, the pool controlled a large part of Bitcoin’s network hashrate, which made it a prime target for advanced attacks.
The breach in December 2020 stole 120,000 BTC, which led to LuBian’s insolvency soon after. Arkham Intelligence, a company that analyzes blockchain data, confirmed the size of the theft and called it one of the greatest in history. The stolen money, which is now worth about $13 billion because Bitcoin has risen above $118,000, moved in ways that CVERC says show state-level sophistication: long periods of inactivity followed by little transactions to unknown exchanges and wallets.
Chinese officials said the event is connected to a U.S. court case against Chen Zhi, a Chinese citizen who is being accused of fraud and money laundering in the U.S. According to CVERC, the U.S. took 127,000 BTC from Chen in a similar “black eats black” operation, which means one illegal actor preys on another. This story makes it sound like the U.S. is stealing online while pretending to be law enforcement, which is similar to other claims that the two countries are spying on each other’s economies.
Geopolitical Context
Accusations of this nature fit within a trend of mutual hostility between China and the U.S. over technology and finance. Washington has long accused Beijing of stealing intellectual property and hacking with the help of the government. China, on the other hand, says that the US is overstepping its bounds, pointing to Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA’s Prism program. The U.S. has stepped up its efforts to punish Chinese-linked businesses in the crypto space, such as the 2023 penalties on Tornado Cash mixers that North Korean hackers with ties to Beijing are said to have utilized.
China’s study comes out at the same time as its own crypto crackdowns: The country has banned mining and trading since 2021, which has forced businesses to move to other countries or go underground. According to Cambridge data, Chinese firms still control 55% of Bitcoin’s hashrate, which makes pools like LuBian weak points in this shadow economy. The timing—after Trump’s tariffs went up—makes it look like Beijing is using the allegation to draw attention away from its rare earth export curbs, which messed up supply chains around the world.
The market reacted quickly: Bitcoin dropped 2% to $116,500 after the news, which showed that people were worried about rising tensions between the U.S. and China over cryptocurrencies. XRP, Ripple’s token that is typically linked to cross-border stories, climbed 3% on rumors of new payment methods.
Possible Effects on Crypto
If proven true, the claims could change how people think about the government’s role in crypto thefts, which have usually been blamed on rogue hackers like the Lazarus Group or ransomware groups. CVERC’s “black eats black” narrative suggests that governments are now involved in this game, deploying cyber operations to take assets for lawful reasons. For the U.S., denying involvement is important to keep the moral high ground while enforcing sanctions; not responding could make conspiracy theories stronger.
Mining pools that handle billions of BTC must protect themselves against APTs (advanced persistent threats), as shown in LuBian’s downfall. This means that wallets will be safer in general. Exchanges like Binance may have to deal with more AML inspection, while privacy coins like Monero (+15% after the article) are rising as a way to protect against being tracked.
This makes the U.S.-China tech cold war worse for the world economy: China’s digital yuan (e-CNY) processes $250 billion, and U.S. stablecoins make up $295 billion. Accusations could lead to two separate ecosystems. Experts like Kim Grauer from Chainalysis say that “state actors in crypto ops could erode trust, pushing adoption to privacy-focused chains.”
Conclusion
China’s claim that the U.S. planned a $13 billion Bitcoin robbery from LuBian in 2020 makes the superpowers’ crypto spat worse, calling it “state-level hacking” linked to Chen Zhi’s case. As the “black eats black” story spreads during tariff fights, Bitcoin’s drop and privacy coins’ rise show that people are worried. Without a response from the U.S., trust fades, pools get stronger, regulations get stricter, and ecosystems break apart. In the geopolitical world of crypto, this might change the rules of theft, making people more careful in a world without borders.
