Alena Vranova, founder of SatoshiLabs, warned of the increase in wrench attacks, physical assaults and abductions carried out against Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto holders in an attempt to steal their private keys.
“Every week, there is a Bitcoiner, at least one in the world, who gets kidnapped, tortured, extorted, and sometimes even worse,” Vranova told the audience at the Baltic Honeybadger 2025 conference in Riga, Latvia.
She warned that even small crypto investors can be on the radar of violent criminals looking for a target. She added:
“What seems to be a problem only for Bitcoin OGs is not really the case. We have seen cases of kidnappings for as little as $6,000 worth of crypto, and we have seen people murdered for $50,000 in crypto.”
The rise in wrench attacks against crypto holders is a disturbing trend, with physical attacks against Bitcoiners in 2025 on track to double the worst year on record, prompting personal safety countermeasures from investors, developers, and industry executives.
Related: Wrench attacks drive crypto investors to centralized custodians
Centralized data leaks magnify the wrench attack threat
Data leaks from centralized crypto exchanges, which collect sensitive user information under know-your-customer (KYC) requirements, and other centralized software providers who collect client data, allow violent criminals to target crypto holders and their families.
“We currently have more than 80 million Bitcoiner and crypto user identities leaked online; 2.2 million out of those contain home addresses,” Vranova said.
These attacks are correlated with Bitcoin prices, and the frequency of the attacks rises during bull markets, she added.
In May, crypto exchange Coinbase disclosed a data breach that leaked the information of a small subset of Coinbase customers, which included home addresses and other identifying information.
In June, a report from Cybernews uncovered databases containing more than 16 billion leaked user login credentials from platforms like Apple, Facebook, and Google.
The password leak negatively impacts crypto holders, who will now be subject to increased phishing, social engineering, hacking, identity theft, and other types of targeted scams designed to steal user data and funds.
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