France Crypto Kidnapping Cases Hit 135 Since 2023

A crypto industry worker's family became the latest victims of France's escalating wave of crypto kidnappings on Saturday, when four assailants broke into their home in Vendin-le-Vieil, in the country's north, and restrained the man, his wife, and their two children, aged 8 and 12, according to a report from French broadcaster BFMTV relayed by Wu Blockchain. All four suspects fled the scene before police arrived, and an investigation into their identities is ongoing.

The attack fits a pattern that French investigators have been documenting with growing urgency. Coin Bureau, citing data reported by Decrypt, said France now accounts for nearly 80% of all crypto-related kidnapping attempts recorded across Europe, a concentration that has made the country the effective epicenter of what the industry has taken to calling wrench attacks, a reference to the low-tech, high-violence methods criminals use to extract cryptocurrency from victims who cannot simply be hacked out of their holdings.

The scale of the problem has been building for three years. French police have recorded 135 crypto-related kidnapping cases since 2023: just 3 in that first year, 18 in 2024, and then a jump of roughly 272% in 2025 to around 49 cases. Through the first four months of 2026 alone, investigators had already logged 47 more, putting this year on pace to be the worst yet. Vanessa Perrée, who heads the organized crime unit at France's national prosecutor's office, Pnaco, said the pattern of repeat perpetrators across multiple attacks points to something more coordinated than opportunistic crime: “We have revealed the existence of structured networks,” she said.

That assessment is backed by the numbers coming out of France's courts. Prosecutors have charged 88 people across 12 active investigations, with 75 of them held in pre-trial detention, and roughly a dozen of those charged are minors. One case involved a 17-year-old accused of helping kidnap a woman and her 67-year-old mother, who told investigators he had been recruited through a Telegram channel by someone using the alias “Hermano,” a detail that illustrates how much of the recruitment for these crimes now happens in the open on messaging apps rather than through traditional criminal networks.

The financial incentive is easy to see. In one previously reported case, attackers held a family of five at gunpoint until they handed over a cold wallet containing $800,000 in cryptocurrency, a single night's haul that would take most violent crime years to match through other means. Unlike a bank robbery, there is no vault to crack and no dye pack to dodge. The victim simply needs to be forced to unlock a wallet or hand over a seed phrase, which is precisely why the crypto industry's wealthiest and most visible holders have increasingly become targets for a style of crime that requires little technical sophistication.

France's experience is the sharpest example of a trend playing out more broadly across Europe. Industry trackers have separately estimated that wrench attacks hit a record worldwide in 2025, up roughly 75% year over year, with Europe accounting for more than 40% of the total. France's outsized share of that figure has turned the country into something of a cautionary case study for how physical security has become as important as digital security for anyone holding meaningful cryptocurrency wealth. It echoes a broader theme this year of crypto holders being targeted through means that have nothing to do with smart contract exploits or protocol bugs, whether that is a fake trading bot tutorial or a home invasion.

Investigators have also pointed to a possible connection to leaked tax data as one avenue fueling the targeting of specific victims, since crypto holdings above certain thresholds must be declared to French tax authorities, creating lists of wealthy holders that could plausibly leak or be sold to criminal networks. Whether the money is extracted through fraud or force, the underlying incentive for attackers is the same: crypto's pseudonymous, largely irreversible transfers make it an attractive target once a victim's identity and holdings are known.

For now, the Vendin-le-Vieil family joins a growing list of victims in a crisis that shows no sign of slowing. With prosecutors already managing a dozen active investigations and dozens of suspects awaiting trial, France's answer to the wave of attacks will likely be tested well before it is resolved. Crypto holders, meanwhile, are left weighing security measures once considered unnecessary for a purely digital asset class, from multi-signature wallets to physical safe houses, as the line between online wealth and offline risk continues to blur.

FAQ

What is a crypto wrench attack?
It is industry shorthand for a kidnapping, home invasion, or physical assault used to force a cryptocurrency holder to hand over funds, named for the idea that a low-tech tool can be more effective against crypto security than any hack.

Why is France the center of this crime wave?
French police have recorded 135 crypto kidnapping cases since 2023, a share investigators say now accounts for nearly 80% of all such attempts recorded across Europe, and prosecutors describe the pattern as the work of structured criminal networks rather than isolated incidents.

How are victims typically targeted?
Investigators have pointed to leaked tax and wealth data as one avenue, since crypto holdings above certain thresholds must be declared to French authorities, alongside recruitment of accomplices through channels like Telegram.

What happened in the most recent case?
Four suspects broke into a home in Vendin-le-Vieil and restrained a crypto worker, his wife, and their two children before fleeing the scene, according to a report from BFMTV.