Criminals extort more than $1 million in Bitcoin from a French couple
Source Cryptopolitan
A couple living near the French capital has become the latest target in a spate of brazen attacks on cryptocurrency owners in France.
The victims were assaulted by masked men in their home and held hostage until they transferred a massive amount of Bitcoin to their captors.
Another crypto kidnapping shakes France
The couple, in their fifties, was visited Monday morning by three individuals posing as police officers. The men, aged between 20 and 30, were wearing balaclavas and gloves.
They rang the doorbell at around 8 a.m. and forced the 59-year-old woman to the ground, when she met them, dashed inside and found her 58-year-old partner upstairs.
The assailants threatened to stab the woman with a knife unless the man sent his crypto holdings to a wallet under their control.
After receiving the digital coins worth €900,000 (over $1 million), they fled the scene in a white van they had parked outside the house.
The couple, who were restrained on a sofa, managed to free themselves, seek help from neighbors, and call the police.
French news outlets, including the crypto portal Journal du Coin and Francebleu, reported on the incident on Tuesday.
Franceinfo broke the news, quoting a knowledgeable source who said French law enforcement launched an investigation into an organized kidnapping, armed robbery, and criminal conspiracy.
The probe is led by the Banditry Repression Brigade, a special police unit under the French interior ministry, and the Versailles Prosecutor’s Office.
The victims live in Le Chesnay, Yvelines department, in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. The woman was taken to the hospital with an injury to the shoulder received when she was thrown to the floor.
During the attack, the perpetrators were on a video call with another man who was apparently giving them instructions. No arrests have been made yet.
France is facing a spike in crimes targeting crypto owners
The kidnapping near Paris is part of a series of similar cases that started in early 2025, the victims of which were all holders of crypto assets.
Among those targeted was a co-founder of the company behind the popular Ledger wallet, who was freed in a raid by the GIGN, the elite special operations unit of the French National Gendarmerie.
Some of the abductions, such as that of the father of a crypto entrepreneur or the attempted kidnapping of the daughter and grandson of the CEO of crypto exchange Paymium, were carried out in broad daylight and in the heart of Paris.
The spike in hostage-takings for ransom like these coincided with the growing popularity of cryptocurrency investments. Criminals also saw an opportunity to exploit some of the advantages of decentralized digital money, which is easier to transfer and harder to seize by the state.
“The attack in Le Chesnay underscores the need for investors to strengthen not only their digital security, but also their discretion and physical protection,” Journal du Coin noted in its article, echoing earlier calls for the same issue by French authorities.
This year also started with a wave of crypto-related abductions. The criminal phenomenon, which the government is yet to tackle properly, has already won France the title of a “global crypto kidnapping capital,” as reported by Cryptopolitan.
While France is taking steps to implement the latest EU regulations, set to tighten oversight in the sector to ensure protection for customers of platforms like exchanges, protecting crypto users against violent attacks like these is becoming a priority for its security services.
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