Crypto ‘Wrench Attacks’ Are Rising, And Getting More Violent

Physical assaults on crypto customers, additionally known as “wrench assaults,” have been rising over time. The incidents are additionally changing into extra violent on common.

But Dragonfly accomplice Haseeb Qureshi discovered the latest uptick in violence per consumer is much like that of 2021 ranges however stays properly beneath pre-2019 danger.

Crypto Wealth and Violence

In an in depth tweet, Qureshi, who referenced Bitcoin developer Jameson Lopp’s long-running database, revealed that the variety of recorded assaults has elevated over time and that the severity of these assaults has additionally risen. He defined that every incident was categorized into 5 ranges of severity, starting from minor to deadly, and that the common reported assault has change into extra violent over time.

When damaged down by geography, Qureshi mentioned Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific area have skilled the biggest will increase in violence, whereas North America stays the most secure area total, although it has nonetheless seen a rise within the absolute variety of incidents.

Qureshi then examined doable explanations for the rise, beginning with crypto market capitalization. He mentioned a easy regression evaluating violent incidents with whole crypto market cap produced an R-squared worth of 0.45, which means about 45% of the variation in reported violence will be defined by value alone, which supported the concept greater crypto costs appeal to extra crime.

He added that different indicators had been examined, however none had been as predictive as uncooked market cap. However, Qureshi burdened that this doesn’t essentially imply crypto is changing into extra harmful on a per-person foundation. He proposed an alternate rationalization – as costs rise, extra individuals personal crypto, which might result in extra whole crimes even when the underlying danger per consumer stays the identical.

To take a look at this, he used Coinbase’s month-to-month energetic customers as a proxy for the variety of energetic crypto holders and likewise normalized assaults by whole market cap as a tough measure of violence per greenback of wealth. According to Qureshi, crypto seems to have been extra harmful in earlier years, resembling 2015 and 2018, when the consumer base was a lot smaller.

He famous that Coinbase MAUs grew from about 2 million in 2015 to roughly 120 million in 2025, a 60-fold improve, whereas violence didn’t rise on the similar fee. While there was a latest improve in violent occasions per consumer, Qureshi mentioned it’s average and is roughly in step with the 2021 stage. This remains to be considerably decrease than earlier than 2019, and that violence per greenback of market cap has barely modified.

High-Profile Wrench Attacks

Quite a lot of critical assaults had been reported in 2025. In January, Ledger co-founder David Balland was kidnapped from his house in France in a wrench assault and held for ransom for round 24 hours. Reports mentioned Balland and his spouse had been taken to a close-by city, and the attackers severed one in all his fingers to strain associates into paying a ransom, earlier than French authorities secured their launch.

In one other case, a US resident visiting London was focused after being lured into the fallacious car whereas ready for an Uber outdoors a nightclub. The sufferer, recognized as Jacob Irwin-Cline from Portland, Oregon, was later tricked into smoking a cigarette believed to be laced with scopolamine. While impaired, he unknowingly gave attackers entry to his crypto accounts and ended up dropping about $72,000 in XRP and $50,000 in BTC earlier than being deserted in an unfamiliar space.

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