Whales and other large crypto holders are increasingly becoming targeted by criminals for kidnapping and coercion, especially as public blockchain records paired with leaked data and on-chain analytics have made it easier to identify the big transactions and huge wallets. Bloomberg reports that incidents of physical attacks against crypto holders have increased by 75% in 2025 — note that this only counts the 72 confirmed reports with $41 million worth of cryptocurrency lost. It’s suspected that the actual number might even be higher, as some victims do not notify the authorities and simply pay the ransom demand.
Because of this, many individuals and institutions are now investing in physical security to keep themselves and their people safe. Executive Risk Services, a security consulting and risk management firm, said that prospective clients in the crypto space reached out to the company about once a quarter about two years ago. Today, it now receives inquiries on a weekly basis. Several crypto firms are also now paying for security details for their executives, with spending set at the same level, or even higher in some cases, as that of major financial institutions, oil firms, and big pharmaceutical companies.
Aside from this, there is increasing interest in how crypto holders can protect their holdings during a home invasion. The publication says that measures include having a decoy wallet, using hardware wallets with duress features, and installing time-delay locks to prevent transfers from happening instantly while under coercion. “Unfortunately, there’s no way to keep yourself off a list,” Bitcoin-security YouTube creator Ben Perrin told Bloomberg, “And so how do you then hedge against that? People want self-sovereignty, but they want to do it right and they’re worried they’re going to mess up.”
Cryptocurrency’s defining feature is the public blockchain, meaning every transaction is visible to anyone, and it’s easy to check the balance of any wallet. One way that crypto holders can protect their holdings is by not revealing their identities, but leaks and data analytics have made anonymity difficult, if not impossible. What’s worse is that they might not even be aware that their privacy has already been compromised until they’ve been attacked.
The distributed nature of cryptocurrency makes it easy to get away with the proceeds of the crime, which only encourages and emboldens these criminals. We’ve already seen one bizarre story of physical crime stemming from Bitcoin holdings — last year, a scammer who stole thousands of Bitcoins had their parents targeted by kidnappers. It’s unclear whether the attack was orchestrated by the victim seeking revenge or by other criminals who saw the scammer’s lavish lifestyle and figured he and his family would be an easy target.
Bitcoin reached its all-time high in the fourth quarter of 2025, making a lot of holders even richer. And while it has since plunged to its lowest level for the year, it’s still valuable enough that holding a few can represent significant value. But if you have millions worth of cryptocurrency, you should reconsider your security.
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