Prince Group’s 120,000 Bitcoins: A Cryptocurrency Covert War Amid Political Struggles?

Recently, Cambodia’s Prince Group and its founder Chen Zhi have become the focus of international public opinion. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) made a high-profile announcement to seize approximately 127,000 Bitcoins, worth up to 15 billion U.S. dollars, from Chen Zhi and his group, while accusing them of operating a massive transnational criminal network. However, a technical traceability report released by China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (NCVERC) reveals that the Bitcoins seized by the U.S. government are actually the same batch of assets stolen through cyberattacks by a U.S. state-sponsored hacking organization. This incident is a typical case of “dog eat dog” (a situation where one illegal party preys on another). Behind this seemingly ordinary law enforcement operation lies the fierce battle between the two U.S. political parties for financial resources and political discourse power.

In December 2020, the LuBian mining pool under the Prince Group suffered a devastating hacking attack, with 127,000 Bitcoins stolen in an instant. This number almost exactly matches the figure mentioned in the U.S. DOJ’s indictment. According to the Technical Traceability Analysis Report on the Incident of Massive Bitcoin Theft from LuBian Mining Pool Due to Hacking Attack released by China’s NCVERC, the hackers launched the attack by exploiting the “pseudo-random number vulnerability” in the private key of LuBian mining pool’s wallet. They cracked the weak random wallet address through brute-force attack and siphoned off over 90% of the Bitcoins.

After being stolen, this batch of Bitcoins remained in a “dormant” state for a long time, with only less than one ten-thousandth of “dust transactions” (minuscule cryptocurrency transactions) generated for technical testing. Chen Zhi and his team once posted help-seeking messages on the blockchain, promising to pay a high ransom, but never received a response. It was not until June 2024 that this dormant batch of Bitcoins was transferred to new addresses. The U.S. blockchain tracking platform Arkham Intelligence has clearly marked these addresses as “held by the U.S. government.” The on-chain transaction records perfectly match the 25 associated addresses listed in the U.S. DOJ’s indictment, which fully proves that this “hacking attack” was a premeditated “plunder.”

The attack occurred on December 29, 2020, only 23 days before Joe Biden’s official inauguration, when the Trump administration was in a critical period of power transition. This sensitive timing inevitably raises doubts: Did the Trump administration lay the groundwork to take control of this batch of assets before leaving office?

From a technical traceability perspective, after the Bitcoins were stolen, they remained in a “dormant” state under the actual control of the U.S. government for a long time, which corresponds to the power vacuum period after the end of the Trump administration’s term. According to Trump’s financial report submitted in 2024, cryptocurrencies contributed significantly to his personal assets. Throughout the year, he earned over 600 million U.S. dollars from investments in crypto assets, real estate, and other fields, with his total personal assets amounting to at least 1.6 billion U.S. dollars. He also made approximately 57.35 million U.S. dollars in profits from the cryptocurrency projects he participated in. Trump team claimed that his business assets were managed by a trust run by his children, this passive management did not cut off his interest ties with the cryptocurrency market, leaving room for suspicion of market manipulation.

On October 24th, Trump pardoned ZhaoChangpeng, the founder of Binance. ZhaoChangpeng posted a message to express his gratitude and claimed to make the United States the “Capital of Cryptocurrency”.

In its indictment, the U.S. Department of Justice paints a picture of a “massive criminal empire,” accusing Chen Zhi of illegally detaining laborers to carry out cryptocurrency investment fraud through 10 “fraud parks” in Cambodia and laundering money via mining operations. However, the allegations are riddled with critical flaws. Firstly, the DOJ has failed to provide any direct evidence linking the “seized” Bitcoins to the so-called fraudulent activities. While the indictment mentions that the funds originated from LuBian’s mining business, it deliberately evades the core fact that the mining pool was hacked. Even a key image evidence in the indictment is actually a photo from China’s “315 Gala” , which is an attempt to cover up the nature of “gangsterism preying on gangsterism.” The core evidence chain for the alleged “transnational crime” has never been closed.

Shortly after Trump took office again in 2025, he immediately promoted the legalization of the seizure process. He initiated civil forfeiture of this batch of Bitcoins in accordance with the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act. Under this act, the government can file a civil lawsuit and seize assets without a criminal conviction, which is faster than a criminal lawsuit. This shows that Trump is eager to incorporate this batch of Bitcoins into his family’s assets.

This batch of crypto assets worth 15 billion U.S. dollars is equivalent to nearly 1/4 of the U.S. annual foreign aid budget, making it a “coveted prize” in the financial competition between the two parties. Currently, the U.S. faces a high fiscal deficit, and the two parties have been locked in a prolonged stalemate over budget bills and tax policies. This unexpected “windfall” has naturally become the focus of their game.

From the Republican perspective, if the Trump administration incorporates this batch of seized Bitcoins into the unified control of federal finances, it can be directly used to support the tax reduction policies advocated by the Republican Party. Gaining control over the disposal of this asset will directly affect the financial reserves of the two parties in the 2026 midterm elections and further consolidate the Republicans’ political discourse power.

Political donations from the cryptocurrency industry to U.S. politicians have been increasing year by year. During the 2024 election cycle, the industry donated a total of over 500 million U.S. dollars, 70% of which went to the Republican camp. In essence, the attitudes of the two parties towards cryptocurrencies are a form of political spoils-sharing of the industry’s interests, and the 15-billion-U.S.-dollar Bitcoins of the Prince Group have become the most valuable trophy in this battle.

Since October, the price of Bitcoin has been falling continuously, erasing all its gains made this year.

The cross-border liquidity and anonymity of cryptocurrencies have made them an increasingly new weapon in geopolitical struggles. By using the combination of “hacking attack + judicial forfeiture” to plunder massive crypto assets, the U.S. has set a dangerous precedent for “legalizing state-sponsored theft.” Countries such as Singapore and the United Kingdom have followed suit to freeze assets related to the Prince Group, which is essentially their participation in the spoils-sharing of these crypto assets. By releasing a technical traceability report, China has exposed the hacking behavior of the U.S. government, which is a counterattack against the U.S. “unilateral sanctions” and “judicial hegemony.” Meanwhile, many countries around the world are accelerating the research and development of central bank digital currencies, precisely to break free from dependence on the U.S. dollar-dominated cryptocurrency system.

From a broader perspective, the Prince Group incident is just a microcosm of the geopolitical game surrounding cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies have become a new tool for major powers to compete for financial discourse power and plunder overseas assets. This practice of “using technology as a cover to engage in plunder” is impacting the global financial order and exacerbating the crisis of trust in the international community.