When Crypto Crime Turns Physical: The Reality of Wrench Attacks

[madtrader]

In January 2025, French authorities freed David Balland after kidnappers demanded a cryptocurrency ransom, a case that highlighted how crypto crime can escape the digital world entirely. Instead of exploiting software vulnerabilities, attackers targeted a person directly, using coercion to force access to funds. These incidents show that crypto theft doesn’t always involve keyboards and code — sometimes it involves real-world threats.

This pattern is known as a wrench attack: a crime where violence or intimidation replaces hacking. The logic is simple but brutal — if cryptography is strong, criminals may bypass it by attacking the holder instead. As crypto wealth becomes more visible and valuable, this form of coercion has emerged as one of the most unsettling risks in the ecosystem.

[nihalsari]

this is why flexing crypto online feels more reckless every year