The cryptocurrency market has created a group of Bitcoin new rich, while cryptocurrency investors and individuals with significant digital assets are becoming targets for kidnappings and robberies.
The value of cryptocurrencies has skyrocketed. Bitcoin has risen 54% over the past year, recently surging to a historic high of nearly $112,000, but some of the gains have retreated due to profit-taking and large holders trading at high levels. Nevertheless, supported by favorable regulatory developments and increased optimism about institutional adoption, prices remain near historical highs.
Reports indicate that the amount of cryptocurrency held in the UK has seen the largest year-on-year growth among surveyed countries, with the proportion of respondents indicating they hold cryptocurrency rising from 18% last year to 24%, while Singapore has maintained the highest cryptocurrency holding rate globally over the past two years.
The amount of cryptocurrency held in the UK continues to grow, with the proportion of respondents indicating they hold cryptocurrency rising from 18% last year to 24% as of April. Photo by Jin Yan
The Trump family continues to deepen its ties with the "crypto circle." On Tuesday, May 27, Trump Media Technology Group announced it had raised $2.5 billion from institutional investors to support one of the largest Bitcoin reserve allocations of a public company. This questionable meme stock will also feature characteristics of a "Bitcoin trust fund." The issuance is expected to be completed around May 29.
The company has signed a partnership agreement with Crypto.com, planning to launch a series of ETFs and digital asset products later this year (pending regulatory approval). These funds will include a combination of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Crypto.com's native token Cronos, as well as traditional securities. The products will be named under the Trump Media brand and will be offered to global investors through major brokerage platforms and the Crypto.com app, which has over 140 million users worldwide. Trump has previously promised to make the U.S. the "world capital of cryptocurrency."
The Trump family, having tasted the sweetness of asset securitization, is concentrating its firepower in the cryptocurrency field and has already secured at least hundreds of millions of dollars. These efforts include Trump NFTs, the "TRUMP" meme coin, the Bitcoin mining company "American Bitcoin," and the cryptocurrency exchange "World Freedom Finance." The dollar-pegged stablecoin USD1 issued by the Trump family has also been used by the UAE state-owned AI company MGX to settle investments in the Binance exchange amounting to $2 billion. Since stablecoins do not pay interest but the issuer's holdings of U.S. Treasury and dollar assets can earn interest, this move is equivalent to the UAE state-owned enterprise indirectly providing the Trump family with potential benefits in the tens of millions of dollars.
World billionaire Elon Musk is also not to be outdone. Media reports indicate that his X platform's payment and banking application, X Money, is about to launch and is currently in beta testing. The X company has obtained money transmission licenses in 41 states in the U.S., covering over 80% of the population. Musk is attempting to build a "financial-social-data" ecosystem through the X platform. X Money focuses on immediacy and security, integrating P2P payments, digital wallets, and potential cryptocurrency features. The system supports instant transfers through Visa Direct, allowing first batch testers to complete payments, savings, and tipping content creators directly within the X platform. Analysts predict that Bitcoin and Dogecoin are likely to be included in the payment track. Fintech commentator Alex Finn said, "The integration of cryptocurrency in X Money could change the landscape of social payments, with Dogecoin likely becoming the preferred choice."
The cryptocurrency market has created a group of Bitcoin new rich, while cryptocurrency investors and individuals with significant digital assets are becoming targets for kidnappings and robberies. Media reports indicate that at least five cryptocurrency-related kidnappings have occurred in France in recent months, while dozens of recorded cases occurred worldwide last year. The criminals' target: cryptocurrency ransoms worth millions of dollars.
A global wave of violent kidnappings is targeting cryptocurrency holders. Photo by Jin Yan
Several kidnappings targeting executives of cryptocurrency companies and their families have occurred in the U.S. Victims have been pistol-whipped and kidnapped, with two cases involving victims having fingers severed.
Recent developments in the highly publicized case of the "Crypto Tycoon Torturing an Italian Millionaire" in Manhattan, New York, show that the Swiss national suspect wanted by the police is reportedly going to surrender. Known as the "Crypto King of Kentucky," John Woeltz has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping and torturing an Italian Bitcoin millionaire in Manhattan. According to sources, Woeltz, 37, owns a private jet and a helicopter, with a net worth of at least $100 million. He has been charged with kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and possession of weapons, and has been ordered not to be released on bail. The victim, 28-year-old Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, is reportedly worth $30 million. Carturan stated that he arrived in New York from Italy on May 6 and was invited by Woeltz to a luxury townhouse on Prince Street in Manhattan.
Woeltz detained Carturan in the apartment, confiscated his passport, and continuously tortured him to obtain his Bitcoin password. It was not until Friday, May 23, that Carturan managed to escape while Woeltz was distracted and ran out of the apartment to seek help from a traffic police officer.
Law enforcement sources stated that during his captivity, Carturan was bound to a chair, had his feet submerged in a bucket of water while being electrocuted, and was even doused with urine, held at gunpoint, and had his arms and legs cut with a saw, and was once bound and hung from a window of the apartment.
Other media reports indicate that in July last year, an Australian cryptocurrency millionaire fought off attackers posing as painters in Estonia and managed to escape from the kidnappers. In March, a cryptocurrency influencer in Houston was attacked, and her husband subsequently exchanged gunfire with a robber who broke into their home and demanded her laptop.
These attacks are often referred to as "wrench attacks" because they rely on simple tools to inflict pain on victims to coerce them, rather than using complex tools to breach the victims' accounts. Victims of reported "wrench attacks" are mostly associated with celebrities in the crypto space, either being major players in the field or flaunting their wealth online.
For a long time, hacking has been a major risk faced by wealthy cryptocurrency individuals. Savvy cryptocurrency investors are increasingly moving digital wallets offline to physical devices to thwart hackers, making remote theft more challenging. However, real-world cryptocurrency crimes bypass these precautions. Coinbase disclosed that personal information of up to 97,000 customers was stolen, including addresses and balance snapshots. The company stated that the data may have been stolen by bribed contractors or customer support department employees, and it has rejected a $20 million ransom demand.
As Bitcoin soars, executives of cryptocurrency companies are moving their digital wallets to offline physical devices for safety. While criminals can no longer steal remotely, they are reaching out with violent and bloody hands.
On May 16, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau convened executives from cryptocurrency companies to discuss the latest security measures in the industry. Retailleau stated that recent kidnappings in France have been primarily carried out by gang leaders who utilize applications like Telegram and Signal to recruit unfamiliar young criminals and then "remotely control" them to execute plans.
In addition to the hacking incident suffered by Coinbase, two data breaches have particularly concerned investigators. The first was a hack of Ledger in July 2020. Ledger is a French cryptocurrency wallet company.
The company produces stylish physical devices that can store cryptocurrency keys offline. In that attack, hackers infiltrated Ledger's marketing database, resulting in the names, emails, and postal addresses of 272,000 customers being leaked online. The second incident involved a hack of risk consulting firm Kroll, which allowed hackers to obtain addresses and other personal information belonging to creditors in the bankruptcy proceedings of cryptocurrency company Genesis.
Cybersecurity investigators say that the data from these two hacking incidents has been made public on criminal forums. Others have pointed out that a large amount of personal data has been stolen and leaked over the past decade. In France, publicly available company registration records may include the home addresses of entrepreneurs. Taylor Monahan, a security researcher at the cryptocurrency wallet company MetaMask, said that cybercriminals are now adept at identifying victims' home addresses through cross-referencing databases and even using paid information sources. This information is often made public to threaten victims and expose their identities, a form of cyberattack known as "doxxing." "The younger generation is very tech-savvy, and they are very good at 'doxxing'," she said.
