Paris Kidnapping Attempt Highlights Growing Threat to Crypto Figures

A lady and her little one, each kinfolk of a number one determine in France’s crypto trade, had been focused in an tried kidnapping in Paris on Tuesday.

4 masked people ambushed the household close to the eleventh arrondissement, in keeping with police sources cited by France 24 and the AFP.

Three of the assailants reportedly sprang from a van and tried to drive the girl and her little one into the car. Her associate was assaulted as he tried to intervene.

The girl managed to disarm one of many attackers and toss the weapon away, triggering a commotion that attracted bystanders. 

The group then fled, and the van was later recovered by authorities close by. All three victims sustained minor accidents and had been taken to the hospital.

Authorities have confirmed the girl is the daughter of the Paymium co-founder and CEO, one of many earliest crypto exchanges in France.

The newest incident provides to a string of violent crimes focusing on crypto-affiliated people or their households. Even these not concerned in crypto and held for ransom have discovered abductors demanding fee in crypto. 

A public tracker run by safety agency Casa CTO Jameson Lopp has recorded 22 bodily crypto-related assaults up to now in 2025, occurring in France, Spain, Hong Kong, and elsewhere. 

Whereas the record shouldn’t be exhaustive and plenty of crimes go unreported, the determine this 12 months compares to 32 instances for all of 2024 and much outpaces the 24 logged in 2023.

France alone has seen no less than six such incidents this 12 months. In January, Ledger co-founder David Balland and his associate had been abducted in France, with Balland’s finger reportedly severed as kidnappers demanded crypto as ransom. 9 suspects, together with the alleged ringleader, have since been apprehended. 

A separate case in early Might concerned seven arrests after a person was kidnapped to extort cryptocurrency from his rich son. The sufferer additionally misplaced a finger. 

On New Yr’s Eve final 12 months, the daddy of a crypto influencer was held hostage in Saint-Genis-Pouilly in a ransom try.

Past France, the development is international. In March, Chinese language-Filipino metal magnate Anson Que was killed after kidnappers demanded $3 million in crypto. An investigation is at present ongoing.

In Hong Kong, a Turkish man was ambushed throughout a multimillion-euro crypto deal, the newest in a number of examples of cash-for-crypto trades gone incorrect. 

And in Brazil, a Spanish businessman was drugged and kidnapped by criminals posing as legislation enforcement. They demanded $50 million in crypto and held him for 5 days earlier than he was in a position to escape.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair