Grisliest Bitcoin Crypto Wrench Attacks Grabbed Headlines in 2025
In 2025, wrench attacks on cryptocurrency holders surged significantly, with at least 65 cases documented in a public database led by Jameson Lopp; many other incidents are believed to have gone unreported.
One high-profile case occurred in France in January when Ledger co-founder David Balland and his wife were kidnapped and held for about 24 hours. The attackers severed a finger to coerce ransom payments. A French-Moroccan national, allegedly connected to the ringleader of Balland’s kidnapping and related abductions in May, was arrested in June.
In Canada, a 2024 case from British Columbia involved a family abducted by attackers posing as postal workers. The couple was waterboarded and threatened, the daughter sexually assaulted, and approximately $1.6 million in cryptocurrency stolen. One of four men involved received a seven-year sentence in November.
In London, a U.S. resident named Jacob Irwin-Cline was drugged with a laced cigarette after mistakenly entering the wrong Uber vehicle. This attack led to the loss of about $72,000 in XRP and $50,000 in Bitcoin when assailants accessed his crypto accounts.
Two men from New York, John Woeltz and William Duplessie, were alleged to have abducted and tortured an Italian businessman over several weeks to extract his crypto passwords. Both pleaded not guilty and were released on $1 million bail in July amid defense videos suggesting the victim was uncooperative.
In Vienna, a 21-year-old student named Danylo K., the son of Kharkiv’s deputy mayor, was brutally beaten, doused with gasoline, burned, and left in a car by two Ukrainian attackers. Crypto withdrawals were detected following this attack. The suspects fled to Ukraine but were eventually apprehended.
These cases highlight a disturbing global trend of violent crimes aimed at forcibly accessing cryptocurrency assets.
