Crypto Investors Under Siege as Real-World Crimes Surge

Cryptocurrency, once the domain of hackers and online fraud, is now increasingly linked to violent, real-world crimes. As digital currencies continue to rise in value and remain loosely regulated, criminals are moving beyond the screen — resorting to kidnapping, torture, home invasions, and ransom plots to access crypto wealth.

Recent incidents paint a disturbing picture. In New York, two American investors, John Woeltz and William Duplessie, were arrested after an Italian man reported being held captive and tortured in a townhouse for weeks as his captors tried to extract his Bitcoin password. Legal representatives for the accused have declined to comment as the investigation unfolds.

In Connecticut, a couple was carjacked, beaten, and bound in a van in what authorities say was a failed ransom plot. The target: their son, allegedly involved in a $240 million Bitcoin theft. While the son has not been charged in that case, he is currently detained on an unrelated federal misdemeanor offense. Police interrupted the kidnapping and arrested six suspects.

Across the Atlantic in France, crypto-related violence is also escalating. Prosecutors say one gang severed a man’s finger and sent a video of the act to his crypto-entrepreneur son as part of a multi-million euro ransom demand. The victim was rescued and multiple suspects were detained. In another case, masked men attempted to abduct the daughter of Pierre Noizat, CEO of the Bitcoin platform Paymium, but were stopped by a shopkeeper armed with a fire extinguisher.

In a separate incident, Ledger co-founder David Balland and his wife were kidnapped from their home. Both were freed after a police operation led to ten arrests.

Experts warn this spike in physical violence marks a turning point in crypto crime. John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas at Austin who researches financial crime, believes this is a natural escalation. “Things that might clearly be outside of social norms in other spaces — like robbing a bank — are somehow just part of the game here,” Griffin said.

The FBI’s 2024 Internet Crime Report underscores the severity of the trend. A record $16.6 billion in internet-related losses were reported last year, with crypto-related thefts accounting for $6.5 billion of that total.

Weak regulation, anonymous transactions, and the sheer amount of money involved make crypto a prime target for organized crime. According to crypto tracing firm TRM Labs, online oversharing by crypto holders — flaunting wealth or revealing personal information — has made them easier to find and exploit. Criminals accustomed to physical violence are now applying the same tactics to digital assets.

“As long as there’s a viable route to launder or liquidate stolen assets, it makes little difference to the offender whether the target is a high-value watch or a crypto wallet,” said Phil Ariss of TRM Labs. “Cryptocurrency is now firmly in the mainstream, and our traditional understanding of physical threat and robbery needs to evolve accordingly.”