Physical and Cyber Threats to Crypto Holders Surge 80% Amid Bitcoin Bull Run
Physical threats against cryptocurrency owners have reached alarming levels in 2025, with violent attacks and cybercrime escalating in tandem with Bitcoin’s rising value. At the Baltic Honeybadger 2025 conference in Riga, Latvia, Alena Vranova, founder of SatoshiLabs, highlighted the growing prevalence of “wrench attacks”—a term used to describe situations where individuals are coerced into surrendering private keys under threat of physical harm [1]. Vranova noted that these attacks are not limited to high-net-worth individuals, with victims as small as $6,000 in crypto being targeted through kidnapping, torture, or even murder. She attributed this surge to data leaks from centralized crypto exchanges, which have exposed over 80…
