The Brutal Side of Bitcoin: Digital Crime and Real-World Attacks

As Bitcoin hits new highs, crypto crime spills into the physical world — with kidnappings, coercion, and targeted violence on the rise.

This spring in Paris, a 60-year-old man was kidnapped while walking his dog. Masked assailants bundled him into a delivery van, severed one of his fingers, and sent the footage to his son — a prominent crypto millionaire, along with a ransom demand of €5–7 million in digital assets. French police say it was no one-off, but rather part of a growing pattern of violent abductions targeting the crypto‑wealthy.

This isn’t cybercrime as we once knew it. The digital heists of old — phishing links, wallet-draining malware, and rug pulls — are being replaced by something far more visceral. As Bitcoin approaches an all-time high of $118,000, the individuals behind the wallets are being targeted offline.

Across Europe, North America, and Asia, crypto holders are facing home invasions, kidnappings, and physical coercion. Crypto wealth, once perceived as secure behind cold wallets and passphrases, is now painting a target on people’s backs. And in some of the worst cases, that target extends to their families.

When Cybercrime Turns Physical

According to data compiled by blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs, more than $2.17 billion in crypto has already been stolen in 2025, and we’re barely halfway through the year. That figure has already surpassed the total for 2024, making this the worst year on record for digital asset theft.

This new wave of theft isn’t happening quietly behind code or through anonymous phishing links. Law enforcement agencies, crypto exchanges, and forensic firms are warning of a sharp rise in so-called “physical coercion events”: brutal, often meticulously planned attacks designed to wrest crypto from victims by force. The tactics are straight out of organized crime playbooks — only now, the targets are traders, founders, and investors with digital wallets instead of briefcases.

More than 25 such incidents have been documented globally so far this year, from major cities in Europe to financial hubs in North America. Experts believe the actual number is far higher, hidden by shame, fear, and legal uncertainty. Many victims, especially those operating in regulatory grey zones, are reluctant to go to the police, and some platforms, wary of spooking investors, have quietly settled with affected users behind the scenes.

The criminal networks behind these violent crypto coercion schemes range from opportunistic local gangs to organized international outfits with ties to traditional criminal trades. In one case, detailed below, two crypto insiders were found to have targeted wealthy foreigners for crypto theft.

Crypto Investor Tortured in New York

In one harrowing case reported in April, a 28-year-old crypto investor visiting Manhattan from Italy was kidnapped by two New York residents. Both of the suspected kidnappers — William Duplessie, 32, and  John Woeltz, 37 — are also involved in the crypto world; Duplessie is listed as the co-founder and head of sourcing at Pangea Blockchain Fund and an investor in other blockchain-based companies, while Woeltz describes himself as a blockchain investor.

Prosecutors said the unnamed victim was tortured for days, threatened with death, and at one point dangled over a railing unless he revealed his Bitcoin password. When he refused, he was beaten, shocked with electric wires, and struck in the head with a firearm, they added. The kidnappers also threatened to kill the investor’s family, according to the Manhattan District Attorney.

Targeting Families: The Lyon and Warsaw Kidnappings

In another case that made headlines in France, the daughter and grandson of a prominent crypto entrepreneur, reportedly the CEO of Paymium, were the victims of an attempted kidnapping in May this year. Three masked assailants ambushed the pair outside their home, assaulting the woman and trying to snatch her two-year-old child before her partner intervened

This came just weeks after French police rescued the father of a cryptocurrency millionaire who had been kidnapped in another area of the capital while walking his dog and held for ransom. The incident, which French authorities said is part of a series of brazen abductions targeting the crypto‑wealthy, saw masked assailants kidnap the 60‑year‑old in broad daylight in Paris, bundle him into a delivery van, and demand a ransom of €5–7 million in crypto. During the ordeal, they severed one of his fingers and sent the son video proof — hallmarks of a growing trend in which organized crime groups extort digital‑currency millionaires.

Investigators noted eerie parallels with the January kidnapping of Ledger co‑founder David Balland, whose captors also hacked off a finger and issued a €10 million crypto ransom.

Scams Go Synthetic

Not all thefts this year have involved physical force, but the most successful ones often blend old-school tactics with technical know-how. The Bybit hack in March, which saw over $135 million siphoned from hot wallets, is still believed to be the work of a DPRK-linked group with a long history of crypto-targeted espionage.

But that attack, while record-breaking, fits within the traditional mold of digital heists. The fundamental shift in 2025 is the integration of deepfake voice calls, real-world surveillance, and even insider manipulation by threat actors to bypass multi-factor authentication and biometric defenses.

Deepfake techniques — including voice cloning and impersonations of trusted contacts — have become a central tool in sophisticated schemes, such as “pig butchering,” where fraudsters establish relationships with victims to coerce them into transferring cryptocurrencies. According to Chainalysis, around 60% of scam deposits in 2024 were directed to operations tied to AI tools, underscoring the growing centrality of machine-driven attacks in the cryptocurrency theft ecosystem.

Why It’s Happening Now

Part of the problem is visibility. In the early days of crypto, most investors operated anonymously or kept a low profile. However, with mainstream adoption, high-profile collectors, DeFi founders, and even NFT influencers have become increasingly public figures, often broadcasting their wallet balances, assets, or trading wins online.

That visibility, paired with skyrocketing valuations, makes them attractive and trackable targets. And unlike traditional banks, where fraud alerts can freeze assets mid-theft, crypto transactions remain largely irreversible once keys are handed over.

In response to this escalating violence and regulatory gaps, US lawmakers have introduced a pair of bipartisan bills aimed at strengthening oversight and enhancing consumer protections. The GENIUS Act (Generating Enforcement and Notification for Illicit Use of Securities) seeks to improve federal coordination on crypto-related crimes, while the CLARITY Act (Crypto Legal Accountability for Tokens and Users) proposes clearer definitions around digital assets and liabilities — including provisions that could hold platforms partially accountable when users are coerced into transferring funds.

While still in early stages, the bills reflect a growing recognition in Washington that crypto crime is no longer a purely digital threat — and that legal frameworks need to evolve accordingly.

“The House passage of the GENIUS and CLARITY bills does not mark the conclusion of crypto regulation; it marks the beginning of a new era of accountability, transparency, and innovation,” Chainalysis wrote in a blog post. “For too long, industry players operated in a gray zone, with vague guidance and uneven enforcement. These bills are a big step toward long-awaited clarity, but clarity alone isn’t enough.”

The Industry’s Next Crisis

The cryptocurrency industry has made significant strides in securing smart contracts, enhancing exchange compliance, and developing forensic capabilities. But there’s little it can do when a victim is forced to comply under threat of violence. Unlike fraud detection systems or AI-powered AML tools, no algorithm can stop a kidnapping.

Some platforms are experimenting with niche countermeasures, including time-locked wallets that delay large transactions, duress PINs that trigger silent alerts, and geographically distributed multisig setups that require keys to be signed from different locations — potentially buying victims time or making coercion logistically more difficult. But these tools are still rare, poorly understood by most users, and largely ineffective in the face of brute force or family threats. After all, an attacker can wait out a timer.

Because the truth is, no amount of encryption or offline key storage can protect you from a gun to the head. Cold wallets were designed to guard against digital intrusions, not hot-blooded assaults in your home.

As the nature of crypto crime evolves, so too must the mindset around security. This is no longer just a matter of safeguarding private keys; it’s about safeguarding lives. The industry needs to stop thinking in terms of code and start thinking in terms of threat models that account for human vulnerability, not just technical flaws.

Crypto isn’t just financial anymore. It’s physical. And it’s personal.