Crypto-Related Physical Attacks Surge 169% in Six Months

Physical attacks targeting Bitcoin and crypto holders are rising at an alarming rate, according to new data tracked by CASA co-founder Jameson ￰0￱ Takeaways: Crypto-related physical attacks have surged 169% since February, with 48 incidents reported in 2025 so ￰1￱ include everyday holders and executives, as rising Bitcoin prices make them high-value ￰2￱ experts warn that while threats are growing, self-custody tools and best practices have also significantly ￰3￱ late February, 35 new violent incidents have been reported globally, a 169% increase in just six and a half months, according to a report by ￰4￱ uptick adds to an already troubling trend, as cryptocurrency markets continue their bullish run.

Crypto-Related Attacks in 2025 Already Up 33% from Last Year In total, 48 attacks have occurred so far in 2025, marking a 33% increase over all of ￰5￱ alone has accounted for 14 of this year’s reported ￰6￱ range from retail holders and traders to crypto executives, highlighting the broad scope of the ￰7￱ of the most disturbing cases took place on September 6 in Cambridge, Canada, where a young man was abducted at gunpoint and forced to transfer funds into a cryptocurrency wallet. “He was compelled to deposit a large amount of money into a cryptocurrency account,” said Waterloo Regional Police officer Chris ￰8￱ the victim sustained non-life-threatening injuries, the suspects, described as four Black males in a dark-colored van, remain ￰9￱ in a recent interview, Lopp emphasized that security is a moving target for digital asset holders.

“The security landscape is constantly changing,” he said. “It is just an aspect of the ecosystem that any prudent investor should stay on top of, since this asset class is highly unforgiving of mistakes.” Lopp believes Bitcoin’s rising value is a double-edged sword. “It is more valuable, hence there are more felons pursuing to take it away from you,” he ￰10￱ improvements in self-custody tools and best practices have also advanced significantly. “We have greatly improved our security best practices over the years to counteract the savvier attackers,” he ￰11￱ noted that ETFs can be a safer alternative for those who simply want price exposure.

“You trade off things like social engineering risk and poor key management risk for the risk that the custodian may fall victim to such attacks or losses,” Lopp ￰12￱ Safe: Avoid Flaunting Crypto Holdings, Report Advises To help users stay safe, the author of the report offered some straightforward advice: Don’t be ‘the Bitcoin guy’ in your ￰13￱ publicizing holdings, especially on social media. Self-custody users should invest time in understanding security basics like seed phrase protection, passphrases, and using multisig wallets with geographically separated signing ￰14￱ tips include avoiding overly complex storage systems that might become inaccessible even to the owner and considering a balance between self-custody and delegated custody depending on individual risk ￰15￱ has become a hotspot for these crimes, with 14 out of 50 global wrench attacks recorded there over the past ￰16￱ police in June arrested a suspect accused of kidnapping crypto ￰17￱ France, the father of a crypto millionaire was brutally ￰18￱ in New York, a tourist was tortured for over two weeks as kidnappers tried to extract his Bitcoin credentials.