UK trader says knife attackers took $760,000 in crypto

Key points

• The trader, pseudonymous on X as "realist", said roughly $40,000 came from a hot wallet and $720,000 from a Ledger wallet.
• Certik verified 52 attacks globally in that period, 33 of them in France.

A UK cryptocurrency trader has claimed that knife attackers stole almost $800,000 from him, in a case that highlights the growth of physical crypto extortion. The unidentified trader, who uses the pseudonym "realist" on X, said masked intruders broke into his home and forced him to send digital assets to a specific wallet, according to CoinDesk.

He said the attackers held him at knifepoint and destroyed his phone before forcing transfers of about $40,000 from a hot wallet and $720,000 from a Ledger wallet. He shared a Solana wallet address on the blockchain explorer Solscan to support his account, but police and other authorities have not confirmed the incident.

Such robberies are known as wrench attacks, in which violence or threats are used to make crypto holders hand over their assets, bypassing digital security.

France has emerged as a hotspot, with Chainalysis documenting at least 30 incidents there in the first half of the year, while Certik verified 52 attacks globally, 33 of them in France. The case follows a reported UK robbery last December in which attackers beat an investor with hammers and threatened his pregnant wife. The article notes that no technical safeguard removes the threat of violence, and that keeping holdings confidential matters as much as protecting keys.

Read the full story on CoinDesk →