TLDR:
- French police rescued a crypto entrepreneur’s father after kidnappers demanded €5-7 million ransom
- Attackers severed the victim’s finger in an attack similar to January’s Ledger founder kidnapping
- Five suspects in their twenties were arrested during the rescue operation
- The victim co-owned a crypto marketing firm based in Malta with his son
- This is the third crypto-related kidnapping in France this year as “wrench attacks” continue
The father of a cryptocurrency millionaire was rescued by French police during a raid on Saturday night, several days after being abducted by kidnappers who demanded millions in cryptocurrency as ransom. The rescue operation, which took place in the Essonne region south of Paris, resulted in the arrest of five suspects all in their twenties.
According to reports from Le Monde and Agence France-Presse, the victim was abducted Thursday morning in Paris’s 14th arrondissement when four masked men forced him into a delivery van in broad daylight. The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed the rescue took place at a rental property.
The kidnappers had demanded between €5 million (US$5.6 million) and €7 million (US$7.95 million) in cryptocurrency after severing one of the victim’s fingers, according to Le Parisien. The attack mirrors other violent crypto extortion attempts that have occurred recently.
“The victim appears to be the father of a man who made his fortune in cryptocurrencies,”
a spokesperson from the prosecutor’s office stated. French authorities confirmed that no ransom was paid before the rescue.
Investigators learned from the victim’s wife that her husband and their son operated a cryptocurrency marketing firm registered in Malta. The identities of the victims have not been disclosed, likely for security reasons.
Rise in “Wrench Attacks”
This kidnapping represents the latest in what security experts call “wrench attacks” – physical threats used to override cryptocurrency’s digital security measures. The term comes from a 2012 XKCD comic and was examined in the first comprehensive study on such attacks by researchers at the University of Cambridge and University College London.
These attacks “undermine the efficacy of existing digital security norms when confronted with real-world threats,” according to the researchers. The Paris incident marks the 21st attack of this nature globally this year, according to a GitHub repository maintained by Jameson Lopp, co-founder and chief technology officer of Bitcoin security firm Casa.
In January, Ledger co-founder David Balland was kidnapped and mutilated in France before police rescued him. Ledger Chairman and CEO Pascal Gauthier described it as a “traumatic situation that we hope will never be repeated.”
Security expert Rigel Walshe, a developer at Swan Bitcoin and former police constable in New Zealand, urges crypto holders to practice “relaxed awareness” and stay “alert and prepared” to prevent wrench attacks.
The frequency of these attacks is “roughly correlated with the size of the market and overall adoption of crypto,” Lopp told Decrypt in February.
This Paris incident is the third crypto-related kidnapping in France this year alone. Similar ransom attempts have occurred worldwide, targeting individuals perceived to hold substantial cryptocurrency wealth.
In November 2024, WonderFi CEO Dean Skurka was kidnapped in Toronto and forced to pay a $1 million cryptocurrency ransom. A Chicago family and their nanny were kidnapped in February 2025 and forced to surrender $15 million in cryptocurrency.
Most recently, online streamer Amouranth was held at gunpoint during a home invasion in March 2025 when armed suspects demanded her cryptocurrency keys. Four suspects were later arrested in Texas in connection with that incident.
The Paris victim was freed during the police raid on Saturday night without any ransom being paid to the kidnappers. The five suspects were taken into custody during the operation led by specialized cybercrime and intervention units.
