В мире растёт число похищений владельцев криптовалют
11.08.2025
In 2025, criminals in the crypto sphere are increasingly taking their methods beyond the internet. This was stated at the Baltic Honeybadger conference in Riga by the founder of SatoshiLabs. According to her, every week at least one Bitcoin owner becomes a victim of kidnapping, torture, extortion, or even more serious crimes.Attacks target not only wealthy investors. According to the founder of SatoshiLabs, there have been attacks on people with cryptocurrency worth around six thousand dollars, and sometimes even fatal cases involving amounts of about fifty thousand. She links the increase in such incidents to data leaks, as millions of users have lost their anonymity and a significant number have had their home addresses exposed. Identity verification procedures on centralized exchanges further simplify criminals’ work.Over the past year and a half, global media have regularly reported on kidnappings, violent assaults, and thefts targeting digital asset owners. Several reports describe the growing number of cases where people are physically forced to reveal wallet passwords – the so-called “wrench attacks.”One high-profile case occurred in New York, where two investors kidnapped a 28-year-old Italian man and held him for almost three weeks, demanding access to his crypto wallet and subjecting him to torture and electric shocks. Similar incidents have been reported in Italy and France, where employees of companies operating in the crypto industry were targeted.Experts advise maintaining maximum privacy, avoiding displays of wealth online or offline, and storing funds in cold wallets. Multi-signature setups and distributing assets across multiple addresses can help reduce risks in situations of physical coercion. More and more cryptocurrency owners realize that today it is important to protect not only digital assets but also their personal safety in real life.