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A fake courier tried to steal a French crypto worker\u2019s private keys at gunpoint, but was disarmed in a struggle, underscoring France\u2019s surge in \u201cwrench\u201d attacks.<\/p>\n
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In the early morning hours of April 11, a French crypto worker and his family narrowly escaped an armed home invasion after a man posing as a delivery driver tried to force him to hand over private keys at gunpoint, in the latest example of so\u2011called \u201c$5 wrench attacks\u201d targeting digital asset holders. The incident, detailed in local reports<\/a> from the Montpellier region and since echoed in national coverage of crypto crime, saw the attacker enter the family home, corral the victim, his wife, and their children into the living room, and demand wallet access while brandishing a handgun.<\/p>\n When the victim\u2019s answers apparently confused the intruder, the assailant stopped to call an accomplice, creating a brief opening that allowed the 40\u2011year\u2011old crypto worker to wrestle for control of the weapon. Neighbours called police as the struggle spilled out of the house, and after a three\u2011day manhunt, officers arrested a 25\u2011year\u2011old suspect from H\u00e9rault, who has since been charged by a Montpellier court with attempted armed robbery and remanded in custody.<\/a><\/p>\n The attack fits a broader pattern. France\u2019s interior ministry and local media have tracked a sharp rise in physical robberies and kidnappings linked to cryptocurrency, with authorities estimating at least 41 crypto\u2011related kidnappings so far in 2026 alone \u2014 roughly one every 2.5 days, up from about 20 such cases between 2023 and 2025. A recent intelligence brief noted that 10 out of 20 global kidnapping\u2011for\u2011crypto cases recorded by mid\u20112025 had occurred in France, attributing the concentration partly to Paris\u2019 push to become a global crypto hub and host frequent high\u2011profile industry events.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n High\u2011visibility figures have also been hit. In February, masked gunmen attempted a home invasion targeting Binance France president David Prin\u00e7ay in Val\u2011de\u2011Marne, fleeing only after realising he was not home, while other gangs have kidnapped relatives of crypto executives on Paris streets and in satellite towns around the capital. In March, a couple near Versailles were forced at knifepoint to transfer roughly $1 million worth of Bitcoin to attackers impersonating police, underscoring how criminals now routinely exploit both social engineering and brute force to reach seed phrases and hardware devices.<\/p>\n French officials have begun promising \u201cpreventative measures\u201d for crypto professionals and wealthier retail holders, including specialised police units, awareness campaigns, and enhanced security at conferences such as Paris Blockchain Week, where VIPs have recently been escorted by police motorcades. For rank\u2011and\u2011file crypto workers, though, the latest handgun incident in Montpellier is a blunt reminder that operational security now extends well beyond cold storage opsec and into basic personal safety \u2014 from home access controls and delivery protocols to how loudly they talk about their holdings in public.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A fake courier tried to steal a French crypto worker\u2019s private keys at gunpoint, but was disarmed in a struggle, underscoring France\u2019s surge in \u201cwrench\u201d attacks. Summary A French crypto…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26499,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26497\/revisions\/26499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fake delivery, real gun<\/h2>\n
France\u2019s rise as a crypto hub \u2014 and target<\/h1>\n