French Interior Minister to meet crypto businesses after kidnappings

On Wednesday, May 14, France’s interior minister announced plans to hold talks with cryptocurrency industry experts in response to a series of recent high-profile kidnapping cases linked to ransom demands.

Bruno Retailleau made the move after yet another daylight kidnapping attempt occurred in Paris, part of an alarming trend of such previous incidents.

”I will assemble businesspeople working in cryptocurrencies, and we have a few of those in France, at the interior ministry to work with them on their security,” Retailleau reportedly told the Europe 1/CNews broadcaster.

On May 13, three masked men attacked Noizat’s daughter, who was walking with her son and a man in Paris’ 11th district.

The attackers nearly forced Noizat’s daughter and her son into a white van.

Intervening onlookers helped disrupt the attack, with one person using a fire extinguisher to intimidate the assailants and throwing it at them as they fled the scene.

Police have launched an investigation, and they found the car linked to the incident abandoned close to the location on the day it occurred.

This latest incident on Tuesday adds to concerns sparked by the January kidnapping of French crypto boss David Balland and his partner.

The abductors cut off one of Balland’s fingers; he co-founded the cryptocurrency firm Ledger.

The investigation has led to the detention of at least nine people, and authorities believe one of them masterminded the act.

In May, kidnappers targeted a man to pressure his wealthy crypto-son into paying a ransom. Police conducted a raid that led to the arrest of seven individuals.

As a cypherpunk and Casa co-founder, Jameson Lopp has assembled a record of offline crypto robberies on GitHub, which now includes 22 instances of in-person thefts occurring this year.

To protect holders and their immediate circle from “$5 wrench attacks,” many in the crypto sector stress the importance of anonymity as the most effective measure.

The list created by Lopp likely misses a significant number of attacks on individuals involved in the cryptocurrency sector.

The University of Cambridge’s September 2024 research found that many “wrench attacks” remain unreported because victims fear being revictimized.