China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center: "U.S. Illegally Occupies 127,000 Bitcoins Stolen in a Hack"

A Chinese state agency has alleged that the United States illegally seized bitcoins (BTC) stolen in a large-scale virtual asset (cryptocurrency) hacking incident.

On the 11th (Korea time), according to CoinDesk, the China National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) announced that the U.S. Department of Justice 'illegally occupied' 127,000 bitcoins (worth approximately $13 billion) that were stolen in a 2020 hack of the Chinese LuBian mining pool.

CVERC asserted that the hack was carried out by a "state-level hacking organization" and that the U.S. seizure appears to have been conducted as an extension of the same organization's operations.

According to the report, the stolen coins were traced to an account linked to Chen Zhi, chairman of Cambodia's Prince Group, who was later indicted in the United States on charges of large-scale virtual asset fraud. The assets remained frozen without movement for about four years, but were moved to a new wallet in mid-2024, and blockchain analysis firm Arkham identified it as a 'U.S. government-owned wallet.'

China argued that "the United States used the pretext of seizing criminal proceeds, but in reality it was part of a complex operation involving the same attack actor." The U.S. government, meanwhile, said the seizure was a legitimate law enforcement action.