China’s top cybersecurity watchdog has accused the United States of engineering one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in history — a $13 billion Bitcoin heist — escalating digital tensions between the two global powers.
The facts show that the 🇺🇸#US is the real "#empireofhackers" and the biggest source of chaos in #cyberspace.
— Chinese Embassy in US (@ChineseEmbinUS) October 20, 2025
The US has hyped up the so-called "China cyber threat theory," coerced other countries to stir up "Chinese hacker attack incidents," sanctioned Chinese enterprises and… https://t.co/39NFAv7Km6
China accuses the NSA of cyberattacks targeting its National Time Service since 2022 — risking disruptions to GPS, finance, power grids & even space launches.
The allegations stem from the 2020 hack of the LuBian Bitcoin mining pool, during which 127,272 Bitcoin were reportedly stolen. In a new report, China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) described the incident as a “state-level operation,” suggesting the attack bore the hallmarks of an organized, government-backed effort rather than a typical criminal scheme.
According to the report, the stolen Bitcoin was later traced to assets seized by U.S. authorities and linked to Chen Zhi, chairman of Cambodia’s Prince Group. Chen was indicted in October on charges including wire-fraud conspiracy and money laundering. While the U.S. has not disclosed when or how it confiscated the assets, Chinese officials allege that American operatives may have used hacking techniques to take control of the Bitcoin as early as 2020.
“The U.S. government may have already used hacking techniques as early as 2020 to steal the 127,000 Bitcoins held by Chen Zhi,” the report claimed, calling it a “black eats black” operation — a term used to describe one covert actor targeting another.
U.S. prosecutors have declined to comment on the case, which now represents the largest civil cryptocurrency forfeiture in U.S. history. Meanwhile, Chen’s legal team has requested additional time to trace the Bitcoin’s path, describing the government’s accusations as “seriously misguided.”
This latest dispute follows a series of Chinese claims accusing Washington of cyber espionage. Earlier this year, Beijing alleged that the U.S. exploited Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities to attack Chinese firms, and more recently, accused it of infiltrating a major Chinese research facility. However, China’s cyber reports often provide limited technical evidence, prompting skepticism from some international observers.
Officials from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Chinese embassy in Washington have yet to respond to the latest claims.
