Early one morning in November, a man pretending to be a delivery driver entered a home in San Francisco’s Mission District. According to police, the intruder tied up one resident with duct tape, threatened him with a gun, and stole $11 million in Ethereum and Bitcoin. Authorities believe this was a targeted robbery by an organized crime group.
During the attack, the assailant beat the victim while holding up a phone on loudspeaker as “foreign voices” on the line repeated personal information about him. The thief poured liquid over the victim before transferring cryptocurrency from his wallets over approximately 90 minutes.
In another incident two months earlier, federal officials charged Texas brothers Raymond Christian Garcia and Isiah Angelo Garcia with kidnapping after they allegedly held a Minnesota family hostage and stole $8 million in cryptocurrency. The brothers reportedly used firearms to restrain their victims and demanded large amounts of cryptocurrency be transferred into their wallet. One victim was driven to retrieve a hard drive-style crypto wallet. The situation escalated when the victim’s son called 911, prompting a significant law enforcement response that led Mahtomedi Public Schools to cancel its homecoming football game.
“A violent kidnapping that stole $8 million and silenced a homecoming game is not just a crime,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said in a statement. “It is a blow to the sense of safety of everyone in Minnesota. This is not normal.”
Analysts report that such violent robberies targeting cryptocurrency holders are becoming more common. While online scams involving digital assets have been prevalent for years—especially increasing during the COVID-19 pandemic—the past year has seen more physical attacks. According to consulting firm WTW, 2025 saw twice as many assaults involving cryptocurrency as the previous year, including several kidnap and ransom incidents targeting senior figures in Asia, Europe, and North America.
These crimes are known as “wrench attacks,” referring to using physical force or threats rather than hacking encryption. WTW noted: “The increase in security by online crypto trading services may be a factor that’s led to the increase in the trend of malicious actors targeting individual wallet holders instead, employing violence and coercion.” The firm also pointed out that rising digital asset values and ease of transfer contribute to increased risk of physical attacks.
“It’s becoming increasingly paramount to assess your exposure to physical extortion, coercion and limit public visibility of crypto wealth through personal security and wallet access controls,” WTW stated.
Ari Redbord, global head of policy and government affairs at TRM Labs, told The Block that there were roughly 60 reported wrench attacks on crypto holders in 2025—a record number—but suggested actual cases are likely higher due to underreporting or misclassification by law enforcement.
“The true number is likely significantly higher,” Redbord said. “Many incidents are logged simply as robberies or burglaries, with the crypto element omitted, while others are never reported due to victim hesitation or uncertainty about how law enforcement will handle crypto-related crimes.”
Victims now include not only wealthy investors but also children, teachers, construction workers, and firefighters, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.
Solace Global reported that many wrench attacks occur in countries generally considered low-risk for kidnapping—such as Western Europe, the US, and Canada—indicating criminal organizations’ willingness to take risks for valuable digital assets.
“This further illustrates the risks criminal organizations are willing to take to secure such valuable and easily movable digital assets,” Solace Global said.
The firm expects these attacks will continue rising as cryptocurrency adoption grows alongside expansion of physical infrastructure like ATMs and payment terminals. In 2025 alone, fraudsters stole more than $333 million from Americans using bitcoin ATM machines (reported by ABC News).
Solace Group added: “As law enforcement adapts and regulation grows, criminal groups operating in safer jurisdictions are likely to increase the outsourcing of violence to local street gangs or proxy groups.” They warned this could lead to greater violence since such groups may be less professional or more unpredictable.
