Crypto thieves are no longer anonymous faces hacking wallets or exploiting code vulnerabilities while sitting behind their laptops. Instead, these new-age crypto thugs are resorting to all sorts of classic crimes–daylight kidnappings, torture, abductions, and whatnot.
Crypto thefts are spiking in Europe, and France is the epicentre. At least 14 out of the 50 reported cases of crypto kidnappings and extortions have been registered in France alone, including the notorious Paymium kidnapping.
As the crypto sector continues to gain mainstream traction all over the world, and Bitcoin climbs in value, thugs are resorting to physical kidnappings to extort via torture.
This article tries to dig into the shifting trends in new-age crypto crimes, the rise of wrench attacks, and things you can keep in mind to keep yourself and your Bitcoin and crypto assets safe from such perils.
How Criminals are Attacking Crypto Figures
Criminals are resorting to kidnapping innocent crypto holders and torturing them into revealing their private keys and passwords. That’s exactly what happened in Manhattan, where a crypto investor kidnapped a 28-year-old Italian guy and tortured him for weeks inside a SOHO apartment to get his hands on the man’s passwords.
Image 1. Source: @EvanLuthra
In May, Paymium CEO’s pregnant daughter, Pierre Noizat, was almost kidnapped along with her son in France by unknown persons. Luckily, the kidnapping attempt was averted by her husband, who wrangled the thugs, and a neighbour who scared them off using a fire extinguisher.
Ledger’s co-founder, David Balland, and his wife were kidnapped for. They were later rescued by the police, but not before Balland lost one of his fingers in January.
The worst crypto kidnapping happened in a luxury New York townhouse. Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan had rented this townhouse for a whopping $40,000 a month! The lavish display of wealth cost the man 17 days of pure torture in his 17-room luxury home.
Michael was tortured by John Woeltz and William Duplessie, who wanted access to Michael’s crypto wallets containing approximately. $28 million worth of cryptocurrency. Michael was tortured using electrical wires, hung from the roof of the building, threatened with a chainsaw, and forced to smoke cocaine.
Michael somehow managed to escape the luxury-turned hell house. The happy ending to the story happened with the two kidnappers getting arrested on charges of assault and kidnapping.
These kinds of attacks come under the category of ‘wrench attacks.’ A wrench attack in crypto refers to an attack that combines high-tech cybertheft and classic crimes like kidnappings and extortion. These kinds of attacks aren't uncommon in 2025.
Read more about wrench attacks in this article by CBS News.
How Criminals Locate and Choose Victims
Crypto assets were considered safe largely because they were digital assets that could only be transferred if the crypto owner approved the transaction using their private key. Blockchain is a transparent ledger with records publicly available for anyone to view and track.
If an influencer or investor is busy bragging about their cold wallet balances and assets on social media, they expose themselves to such threats. Another noteworthy point is that crypto transactions aren’t reversible. What’s done is done.
Blockchain transparency and immutability act as double-edged swords, arming thieves and thugs with a ready database to track and target their potential victims, and allowing a ‘light’ loot, in the form of digital assets, even if they are stored in a cold or hardware wallet.
Also, security lapses, such as KYC data leaks, on big exchanges like Coinbase, exposed the data of millions of users. Cointelegraph reported that customer service agents were bribed to gain access to sensitive user information, including photos and home addresses of over 70,000 users in December 2024.
Lisa Loud, executive director of Secret Foundation, suspected the same. She said, “Just yesterday, I got five texts about Coinbase, saying someone was trying to access my 2FA or withdraw funds. The whole point of Web3 is to move beyond the problems of Web2, not to repeat them.”
The thieves have studied the nature of crypto investors and figured out a way to turn
these random crimes into an organized crime racket.
Why France is the Epicenter
Image 2. Source: @cryptothedoggy
France remains the epicentre of such crypto crimes and kidnappings. 26% of the crypto targeted attacks happened in France, 15 in just five months as per Nefture Security’s 2025 statistics.
Entrepreneurs, influencers, and investors are easy targets for several reasons:
French entrepreneurs are required to register their names and addresses in the government database. This mandatory requirement does both harm and good.
The European ‘ crypto travel rule’ which asks for the source and destination of cryptocurrency transfers. A smooth ride for anyone wanting to know the identities of people with considerable crypto assets.
The kidnappings may also be a part of organized crime cartels who target a specific class of people, here crypto millionaires and billionaires. For instance, 26 people were charged and arrested for failed kidnapping attempts on a top French figure in the crypto sector.
However, France is not the only place criminals are attempting physical crypto thefts. A Florida man stole $4 million from a crypto host’s wallet and left him in a desert. Another Florida criminal was sentenced to 47 years in prison after he was caught running a crypto extortion racket.
Centralised exchanges are required to manage customer information like passport scans, government IDs, or utility bills which are used as address proofs, to comply with regulations. Crypto users have been demanding the scrapping of KYC rules.
One X user, Banteg, says, “All this security theater needs to be abolished asap. Time and again it only benefits hackers and extortionists. KYC actually enables crime.”
Paymium is rallying to revoke MiCA crypto regulations which enforce the European crypto travel rule. In France, government officials are visiting the houses of crypto entrepreneurs and addressing their safety concerns. The officials have also set up an emergency hotline for such cases.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said,"These repeated kidnappings of professionals in the crypto sector will be fought with specific tools, both immediate and short-term, to prevent, dissuade and hinder in order to protect the industry."
Crypto influencers and entrepreneurs are hiring bodyguards for their protection. For instance, Coinbase CEO Bill Armstrong spent $6 million on personal security in 2024. This amount is bigger than the combined safety budget of Goldman Sachs, Nivdia, and JP Morgan execs.
What crypto investors can do
Keep it low and avoid any social media risks. You may be the rich crypto millionaire who made a bounty out of a memecoin that skyrocketed 1000x or a known crypto figure, avoid a display of wealth or lavish lifestyles on your social media. Your euphoria can cost you much more than your crypto assets.
Kidnappers often target the kith and kin of such millionaires for crypto ransoms. For thieves, these relatives are soft targets owing to low security. Kidnapping loved ones to extort money is a classic move of the thugs.
Shadow your wealth. Avoid keeping your funds in a wallet as mostly these wallets have minimum security thresholds and can be unlocked with a 2FA breach using your own mobile phone. Use multisig wallets or decoy names to remove any chance of direct connections that thugs might identify from your social media activities.
Image 3. Source: @agentic_t
K&R insurance , or kidnap and ransom insurance, is another way you and your organisation can protect yourself from unforeseen threats while moving around in high-risk areas.
Delete all wallet screenshots, ENS names, or public balance records from your phone or online accounts.
User burner emails and separate online profiles for your crypto activities.
Use SIM cards that ask for in-person verification to avoid duplication or frauds.
Set up decoy wallets for emergencies.
Keep a wallet separate for daily use, and stack all other ‘wealth’ assets in a hardware wallet safely kept away, and having offline recovery mechanisms.
Split your keys across locations with extra protection layers, such as time delays, remote wipe capabilities, or using 2-of-3 setups.
Strengthen security within and outside your home by having secure access, regular drills, silent alarms, etc.
Since near-kins are the soft targets, make sure to train your family. Teach them coercion codes, plan escape routes, and install panic buttons.
Expert opinions
Crypto kidnappings are spreading like wildfire, and criminals are finding new ways to bypass laws or take advantage of loopholes. Make the safety of your family and funds a priority. Follow safety protocols, peruse instead of flaunting your wealth, and try storing your crypto assets across wallets, preferably cold or hardware wallets.
On the regulatory front, MiCA regulations require asset transfer declarations, and CEXs are required to maintain KYC data. However, efforts should be made to better secure and encrypt the data through tokenisation or DIDs (decentralised identity).
Self-custody is not equal to self-defense. An X user, @tyler_thehodler, rightly puts, ‘“Cold wallets. No flexing. Limited trust. Crypto isn’t just gain — it’s a responsibility.’ Staying low-key is the key to being safe in crypto.”
