Friday’s news has just confirmed a new attack at the home of a player in the digital asset sector and his family from Verneuil-sur-Seine (Yvelines), as reported by Le Parisien, illustrating a particularly worrying underlying trend.
According to the statistics Grégory Raymond, the co-found of The Big Whale, a journalist specializing in cryptocurrencies and the author of the book “Bitcoin et cryptomonnaies, l’enjeu du siècle”reports in a post on his account on X, France has become the battlefield in a series of violent attacks. Having begun in early 2025, these incidents seek to target individuals associated with the Web3 ecosystem, concentrating a disproportionate share of physical crime related to digital assets on a global scale.
Alarming statistics illustrate the link between physical violence and cryptocurrency
The latest figures, compiled by Raymond, show that in the twelve-month period starting 1st January 2025, France has seen at least twenty-one criminal cases of this nature.
These figures are even more alarming when one considers them on a global scale. Of the seventy-five physical attacks recorded by the world media during the same period, France was host to 28 per cent.
These data suggest that the holders of digital assets living on French soil are being specifically targeted by organized crime groups. Even though not all the cases are systematically brought to public attention, the sheer volume of known cases paints a picture of increasing danger.
France facing physical violence and cryptocurrencies: a chronology of the extreme
The characteristic modus operandi of these attacks is their extreme violence, ranging from false imprisonment to physical harm. Starting on the first day of 2025, the tone was set with the kidnapping of an influencer’s father in Ain. Following this, some weeks later David Balland, the co-founder of the unicorn Ledger, and his partner fell victims to a kidnapping and torture in Vierzon.
It appears that the phenomenon of physical violence and cryptocurrencies does not have a preference for any particular profile:
- Entrepreneurs and executives: some, like Pierre Noizat (the founder of Paymium), were targeted with attempted kidnappings of their family members
- Bitcoin miners and traders: a number of individuals in Troyes, Nantes, and Juvisy-sur-Orge were held captive by men in balaclavas trying to access digital wallets belonging to their victims
- Individual investors: whole families, like the recent case in Verneuil-sur-Seine in the department of Yvelines, were tied up and tortured in their homes.
Targeting professionals and their families
The analysis of these 21 files reveals that the criminals do not only target well-known people. Engineers, former merchants, and even investors have been followed and attacked. The pressure extends also to include their close relatives: parents, partners, and children have been used as leverage in order to force the victims to transfer their digital funds.
Grégory Raymond emphasises that these attacks are not always opportunistic. Several cases reveal painstaking preparation, with prior surveillance and interventions by police services having sometimes prevented upstream kidnappings, particularly in Normandy or in Nantes.
Are we moving towards a strengthening of personal security protocols?
Presumably, the sheer scale of the phenomenon would suggest a necessary behavioral modification on the part of the sector’s actors. While digital security (private keys, cold wallets) remains the priority, physical safety and discretion have become vital issues.
The integration of digital assets into everyday financial life seems to be accompanied by a shift in crime, where ‘digital theft’ moves from software to home.
Certainly, the increase of police interventions in flagrante delicto shows an awareness on the part of the authorities. However, the repetition of attacks, such as the one suffered by an asset holder in Chalon-sur-Saône for the fourth time, highlights the perseverance of criminal networks in the face of the high potential gains represented by cryptocurrencies.
Evolution of protective devices and increased vigilance
The increase in criminal pressure should logically lead to a transformation of private security services and specialized legal advice for the Web3 users.
Of course, we can expect the sector’s professionals to adopt more rigorous protective measures, from reinforcing home security to anonymization of their online presence.
Equally, the development of asset custody solutions with transfer delaying mechanisms could become a standard to limit the interest in physical aggression, making immediate access to funds impossible under threat.
Source : Le Parisien, @gregory_raymond PAULINA H
