The tranquility of an apartment building in the Val-de-Marne department of France was shattered on the morning of the 12th. According to French media outlet RTL, three masked assailants armed with weapons stormed the building with a clear target: the residence of the head of Binance France.
They first forced their way into another residence, extracting the location of the target apartment from the resident. They then ransacked the residence of the cryptocurrency executive. Finding the homeowner absent, the assailants stole two mobile phones and fled the scene.
But the story didn't end there. At 9:15 a.m. that same day, the same group of suspects attacked another resident in nearby Vaucluse, apparently mistaking him for another cryptocurrency entrepreneur. Police tracked them down using CCTV footage and cell phone signals, eventually arresting the three at Lyon's Perache train station. They are currently in custody for investigation.
The outcome of this incident can be considered "lucky": the target was not at home, and the suspect was quickly apprehended. However, the trend it reveals is anything but fortunate.
France has become the epicenter of global attacks on crypto entities.
The attack on Binance's French CEO is not an isolated incident. According to a report released by blockchain security firm CertiK in February of this year, there will be 72 reported cryptocurrency attacks globally in 2025, a 75% increase from 2024, with confirmed losses exceeding $40 million. This figure is almost certainly a significant underestimate, as many victims remain silent due to fear, private settlements, or ransom payments not being transferred through the public blockchain.
France stands out on this global crime map. Europe accounts for more than 40% of global crimes, and France leads the pack with 19 reported cases, more than twice the number reported by the United States.
Since 2017, France has recorded more than 30 cases of kidnapping and violent robbery, with more than 20 of them occurring in 2025. Entering 2026, the situation has not cooled down but has instead deteriorated rapidly: four attempted kidnappings occurred in the first four days of January, and by mid-February, at least 11 cases had been reported this year.
In other words, crypto professionals in France now face not only the risk of market volatility, but also the risk of their commute home from work.
The more robust the digital fortress, the more valuable the physical body becomes.
The root of this wave of physical attacks lies in a seemingly paradoxical technological trend. Over the past few years, the digital security of crypto assets has improved significantly, with multi-signature wallets, hardware keys, and zero-knowledge proof verification making it increasingly costly for hackers to steal coins from the blockchain. CertiK's report points out this "technological paradox": as the barrier to digital attacks is raised, criminals naturally turn to lower-cost methods, and those methods are directly targeting people.
In security science, this has a chilling name: "wrench attack." No private key needs to be cracked; all that's required is a wrench and the victim's knee. In 2025, the number of cases involving physical violence increased by 250% compared to the previous year, with kidnapping remaining the most common method, accounting for 25 cases, a 66% year-on-year increase.
Ironically, regulatory measures aimed at making the crypto industry more "compliant" may have inadvertently exacerbated this problem. Stricter KYC/AML requirements and the rise of regulated ETFs, while increasing market transparency, have also created databases linking real identities to wallet addresses. Once this data is leaked, cryptocurrency holders go from anonymous on-chain addresses to targets with names and addresses that can be traced.
In other words, the higher your level of compliance, the more "locatable" you are in the eyes of criminals.
The deterrent effect of the judiciary is almost zero.
France has become a hotspot not only because of its thriving crypto industry. A more acute reason is that the judicial system's response time is far behind the speed at which crime is evolving.
French law carries a substantial theoretical sentence for kidnapping: up to 20 years, and up to 30 years if torture is involved. However, to date, no kidnapping case has resulted in a final conviction. In May 2025, French prosecutors indicted 25 suspects (including 6 minors), but the case is still ongoing. The 6 minor suspects will automatically receive reduced sentences under the law.
The age structure of the perpetrators is telling. Most are young men aged 16 to 23 who, after witnessing the lavish lifestyles of crypto millionaires on social media, lack the technical skills to steal assets from the blockchain. Burglary and kidnapping become the "shortest path" to monetization in their minds. With virtually no legal repercussions, the "risk-reward ratio" of this path becomes extremely tempting to them.
This isn't due to a lack of effort on the part of law enforcement; in the case of Binance France's CEO, police completed the tracking and arrest within hours. The problem lies in the fact that between swift arrest and effective deterrence, there is a whole set of slow legal procedures.
The ideal of decentralization, the physical body of centralization
The attempted robbery resulted in no physical harm, and the suspect was apprehended the same day. From the outcome, the swift response of French law enforcement is commendable. However, from a trend perspective, this is just another data point on a continuously rising curve.
The crypto industry has spent fifteen years building digital fortresses, from Bitcoin's proof-of-work to Ethereum's account abstraction, with each upgrade making on-chain assets harder to steal. But the economics of crime has its own logic: when the front door is blocked, thieves will look for the windows; when the windows are also locked, they will go directly to the owner of the key.
Only six weeks into 2026, there have already been 11 physical attacks globally. If this pace continues, this year will easily break the record set in 2025. The question is no longer whether crypto assets are safe, but whether the people holding crypto assets are safe. And the answer to this question is not on the blockchain.
