Summary
- A 32-year-old man faces charges in Nancy for a "wrench attack" aimed at a cryptocurrency holder.
- This individual was part of a trio that allegedly impersonated law enforcement to assault a couple and steal $20,000 in digital assets.
- The incident occurred after a January data breach at the French crypto tax platform Waltio exposed personal details of 50,000 users.
In Nancy, three men reportedly pretended to be police officers to assault a couple at their residence, attempting to steal their cryptocurrency holdings after accessing their personal information from a compromised crypto platform, as reported by Le Parisien.
A 32-year-old man from Vaujours (Seine-Saint-Denis) has been charged in Nancy with attempted armed extortion, organized gang kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit a crime.
According to Le Parisien, the attack began when a 45-year-old woman was confronted outside her home. Her husband was “brutally beaten” after he came out to investigate the commotion, and the attackers fled following the couple’s daughters alerting the police from inside.
Law enforcement found plastic zip ties and a €5 note left behind by the assailants, whom witnesses described as armed with an Uzi submachine gun.
This incident reportedly stemmed from the husband’s €20,000 in cryptocurrency being exposed due to a January data breach at the French tax reporting platform Waltio. The breach uncovered email addresses, trading gains and losses, and cryptocurrency balances for about 50,000 users, with the hackers attempting to extort Waltio before selling the stolen information.
In the wake of the data breach, Waltio cautioned that attackers might impersonate fake customer service representatives, police, and security officials to execute phishing schemes and scams. The platform remarked, “The attackers leverage their knowledge of your email address and an approximate valuation of your assets to enhance their credibility.”
Wrench Attacks Targeting Crypto Holders in France
This incident in Nancy is part of a troubling trend of crypto-related assaults in France, which also includes the kidnapping and mutilation of Ledger co-founder David Balland, an armed home invasion, the abduction of a magistrate and her mother, and a kidnapping attempt involving the wife of “The Sandbox” co-founder Sébastien Borget.
The tactics used in this attack closely resemble a March incident where three impostors posed as police officers to threaten a couple at knifepoint and coerced them into transferring $1 million in Bitcoin.
Eric Larchevêque, a business associate of Balland, recently criticized what he termed the "Mexicanisation" of France due to the government's inadequate response to the surge in crypto-related kidnappings.
Bruno Retailleau, France's Interior Minister, has committed to gathering cryptocurrency industry leaders at the ministry to “collaborate on improving their security.” In April, French authorities charged 88 individuals, including minors, in connection with 12 ongoing judicial investigations into crypto kidnappings.
Physical assaults on cryptocurrency holders—termed "wrench attacks"—have increased globally alongside cybercrimes. In the U.S., Remy St. Felix was sentenced to 47 years in prison in September 2024 for leading a violent crypto home-invasion operation—the longest sentence in a U.S. cryptocurrency case. Similarly, Ukrainian police officers reportedly kidnapped crypto entrepreneurs to extort millions, while three suspects have been charged for a series of wrench attacks in California.
Phil Ariss, Director of UK Public Sector Relations at TRM Labs, has labeled wrench attacks as a “natural evolution of criminal behavior,” suggesting that “criminal organizations already inclined to use violence to achieve their objectives would likely turn to crypto.”