Source:CNBC
Compiled and organized by: BitpushNews
The Bitcoin Family taking a photo during a ski trip in the Nevada Mountains in southern Spain. They sold all their property to bet on Bitcoin in 2017 and have now become a family of five traveling as "digital nomads".
After several kidnapping cases targeting crypto celebrities, the entire community is on edge. Many well-known figures have quietly upgraded their security systems, including the "crazy family" who converted all their assets into Bitcoin.
Didi Taihuttu, the patriarch of the "Bitcoin Family", said that their entire family has completely transformed and developed a brand new security plan.
As early as 2017, this family sold their house, car, and all other assets, going all in on Bitcoin at around $900 per coin at the time, and embarking on an extreme crypto faith journey. They travel full-time with their three daughters, completely abandoning the traditional banking system.
In the past 8 months, Taihuttu said they have also abandoned hardware wallets, switching to a hybrid system: partially simulated and partially digitized, encrypting and splitting seed phrases, storing them through blockchain encryption services, or hiding them in physical locations across four continents.
"We changed everything," Taihuttu told CNBC in a phone interview from Phuket, Thailand. "Even if someone points a gun at me, I can only give them the assets in my mobile wallet, which isn't much."
CNBC first reported on this family's unique storage system in 2022, when Taihuttu described how he hid hardware wallets across multiple continents, from rental properties in Europe to self-storage facilities in South America.
The Taihuttu family dressed up during Halloween in Phuket, Thailand. They recently moved because their address was exposed in YouTube videos.
With kidnapping cases against crypto holders becoming increasingly frequent, even this family has begun to re-examine their level of online exposure.
This week, Moroccan police arrested a 24-year-old man suspected of planning multiple violent kidnapping cases targeting crypto executives. One victim was the father of a crypto millionaire, allegedly held in a house south of Paris for several days and even had a finger cut off.
In another case, the co-founder of Ledger wallet company and his wife were kidnapped at home, with the kidnapping gang also targeting another Ledger executive.
Last month in New York, authorities said a 28-year-old Italian tourist was kidnapped and tortured for 17 days in a Manhattan apartment, with kidnappers using electric wire shocks, gun beatings, and even attaching an Apple AirTag to his neck to track him in an attempt to obtain his Bitcoin password.
The common point in these incidents is: to obtain keys that can immediately transfer virtual assets.
"Seeing so many kidnapping cases is indeed disturbing," said JP Richardson, CEO of crypto wallet company Exodus. He urged users to enhance their own security measures, adopt self-custody, store large assets in hardware wallets, and for users with large crypto assets, use multi-signature wallets, which are typically used by institutions.
Richardson also suggested spreading funds across different types of wallets, avoiding storing large amounts in hot wallets to reduce risk without sacrificing flexibility.
This increasing sense of insecurity has also driven the demand for physical protection, with insurance companies accelerating the launch of "Kidnap & Ransom" (K&R) insurance for crypto holders.
But Taihuttu couldn't wait for corporate solutions to mature. He chose complete decentralization - not just financially, but in personal risk management.
The family is preparing to return to Europe from Thailand, with "safety" becoming a frequent topic at the dinner table.
"Our whole family has been talking a lot about these things recently," Taihuttu said. "The children are also watching the news - especially that case in France, where the CEO's daughter was almost kidnapped on the street."
Now, his daughters are starting to ask tricky questions: "What if someone tries to kidnap us?" "What is our response plan?"
Taihuttu manually hammers and stamps part of the seed phrase onto steel plates. These steel plates are hidden across four continents as part of a decentralized storage system.
Although the daughters' wallets only contain a small amount of crypto assets, the family has decided to completely leave France.
"We were originally just a bit famous in a niche market - but this niche market is now becoming larger and larger," Taihuttu said. "I think we'll see more and more similar robbery incidents. So, yes, we definitely won't go to France."
Even in Thailand, Taihuttu has recently stopped updating travel and family videos. He has received harassment messages from strangers claiming to have found his home address through his YouTube videos.
"We were living in a very beautiful house for six months - and then I started receiving emails saying they recognized the house. They even warned me to be careful and not let the children be alone outside," he said. "So we moved, and now we're not making videos at all."
"The world is strange now," he said, "so we can only prevent it ourselves - and in terms of wallets, we no longer use hardware wallets at all."
To prevent theft, Taihuttu encrypts some words in the 24-word seed phrase and divides them into four groups of 6 words each, hidden around the world
The family's new security measure is to split a 24-word Bitcoin seed phrase into four groups of 6 words each, stored in different geographical locations. Some are digitally saved through blockchain encryption platforms, while others are manually engraved on fireproof steel plates and hidden across four continents.
"Even if someone finds 18 of the words, they can't do anything," Taihuttu explained.
He also added a layer of personal encryption: replacing specific seed phrase words to confuse attackers. This method is simple yet effective.
"You just need to remember which words you changed," he said.
Part of the reason they abandoned hardware wallets was the increasing distrust of third-party devices. Including a controversial Ledger update in 2023 that raised concerns about backdoors and remote access features, they decided to completely abandon hardware wallets and switch to paper and steel plate encrypted backups.
While they still keep a small amount of cryptocurrency in "hot wallets" for daily expenses and algorithmic trading strategies, these assets are protected by multi-signature approval, requiring multiple parties to sign off on transactions.
They use Safe (formerly Gnosis Safe) to manage Ethereum and other Altcoins; for Bitcoin, they use similar multi-security measures on centralized platforms like Bybit.
Taihuttu near the Nevada Mountains in Spain. The family's lifestyle - no bank accounts, nomadic living, heavy Bitcoin investment - is even considered unusual in the crypto circle
Taihuttu stores about 65% of the family's crypto assets in cold wallets across four continents - a decentralized system that he considers better than the centralized vault used by Xapo under Coinbase in the Swiss Alps, despite the latter offering physical protection and inheritance services. Taihuttu says these still require "trusting others".
"What if those companies go bankrupt? Can I still access my assets?" he said. "You've handed the capital back to someone else."
Therefore, Taihuttu chose to control the keys himself—hidden around the world. He can remotely replenish wallet balances, but withdrawing these funds would require at least one international trip, depending on the location of the required seed phrase fragments. These assets are viewed as long-term retirement funds, planned to be used when Bitcoin reaches $1 million—which he expects to happen in 2033.
Didi, Romaine, and their three daughters mostly live in an off-grid environment, managing crypto assets using decentralized trading platforms, algorithmic trading bots, and a globally distributed cold wallet system
This multi-party security shift is reflected not only in multi-signature wallets but also extends to MPC (Multi-Party Computation) technology, which is gradually becoming popular as a more advanced security model.
MPC does not store private keys in a single location, but instead encrypts and splits them into multiple "shared fragments" distributed among multiple parties. Transactions can only be executed when the set signing threshold is reached, significantly reducing the risk of theft or unauthorized access.
Traditional multi-signature wallets require multiple entities to approve transactions, while MPC goes further by cryptographically splitting the private key itself, ensuring that no one can possess the complete private key—not even their own fragment can independently complete a signature.
This trend coincides with renewed scrutiny of centralized crypto platforms like Coinbase—which recently disclosed a data breach affecting tens of thousands of users.
Taihuttu stated that now 80% of his transactions are completed on decentralized exchanges like Apex. Apex is a peer-to-peer platform that allows users to set buy and sell orders while retaining fund custody, dedicated to the original decentralized spirit of cryptocurrency.
Although he did not reveal his total holdings, Taihuttu shared his goals for this bull market: achieving a net worth of $100 million, with 60% still held in Bitcoin. The remaining assets are distributed across L1 tokens such as Ethereum, Solana, LINK, Sui, and an increasing number of startups focusing on AI and education—including a platform he founded to provide blockchain and life skills courses for children.
Recently, he has also begun considering whether to fade from public view.
"Content creation is truly my passion. I enjoy it every day," he said, "but if it's no longer safe for my daughters... I really need to reconsider."
