Four masked men have held a family of four captive for more than three hours at their home in northern France and forced the father, an IT worker in the crypto sector, to transfer €40,000 in digital assets.
Summary
- Four masked men held a family of four captive for more than three hours and forced the father to transfer €40,000 in crypto.
- The attackers assaulted the father for his access codes, while his 12 year old daughter was struck in the face.
- French authorities are investigating the case as kidnapping and extortion by an organized gang, with all four suspects still at large.
- France has recorded more than 70 crypto linked kidnappings and unlawful detentions during the first eight months of 2026.
According to BFMTV, the attackers entered the family home in Vendin-le-Vieil at around 4 a.m. Sunday and restrained the couple and their two children, aged eight and twelve.
The Béthune prosecutor’s office said the 40-year-old father works as a salaried IT specialist in the digital currency sector. Prosecutors have opened an investigation into unlawful detention and extortion following the attack.
Attackers forced victim to reveal crypto access codes
Once inside the property, the four hooded men bound the family with black tape and searched the house, France Télévisions reported, citing a police source.
The attackers later separated the father from the rest of his family and assaulted him while demanding access to his cryptocurrency. He was forced to “communicate his identification information and codes,” the police source said.
During the ordeal, the couple’s 12-year-old daughter was struck in the face with car keys, according to a source close to the investigation.
The attackers eventually obtained roughly €40,000, worth approximately $46,000, before leaving the property. The family managed to free themselves after the group drove away, and firefighters arrived at around 7 a.m.
Prosecutors said the victims were in a state of shock after the attack and were referred for forensic medical examinations. A victim support association has been assigned to assist the family.
Investigators are treating the case as kidnapping and extortion by an organized gang. The investigation has been handed to regional judicial police and France’s anti-cybercrime office, while all four suspects remain at large.
French crypto home invasions continue in 2026
The Vendin-le-Vieil attack follows several home invasions involving people with direct or indirect links to cryptocurrency in France.
On Sept. 2, crypto.news previously reported that a French couple were tied up for more than two hours at their home in Alès while two masked attackers demanded cryptocurrency transactions. Their young child was inside the property during the attack.
Neighbors contacted police after hearing screams, prompting the attackers to flee as officers arrived. Investigators from the Organized and Specialized Crime Division in Nîmes took over the case.
Another incident in April involved a French crypto industry worker who was targeted at his home by an armed man posing as a delivery worker.
The attacker tried to obtain the victim’s private keys at gunpoint, but the victim managed to wrestle the firearm away during a struggle. Police arrested a 25-year-old suspect three days later, and a Montpellier court charged him with attempted armed robbery and remanded him in custody.
Earlier in March, three people posing as police officers entered a home in Yvelines and held a couple at knifepoint. The husband was forced to transfer roughly €900,000 in Bitcoin before the attackers tied him up and fled.
The latest case differs in the amount stolen and the victim’s profile. The Vendin-le-Vieil victim was described as a salaried IT worker in the digital currency sector, while several previous French attacks have involved wealthy investors, executives, entrepreneurs or their relatives.
High profile cases this year have included an attempted kidnapping involving the wife of The Sandbox co-founder Sébastien Borget and attacks connected to other prominent members of the country’s crypto industry.
France records dozens of crypto linked violent cases
French authorities have been responding to a sharp increase in physical crimes linked to digital assets.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said in July that France had recorded 77 cases involving kidnappings, unlawful detention, extortion or attempted offenses connected to cryptocurrency during 2026. The figure compared with 45 cases recorded throughout 2025.
Nuñez said roughly 200 people had been arrested following attacks or during operations intended to prevent them. Authorities have expanded intelligence sharing, cooperation with digital asset companies and coordination with other countries where people suspected of organizing the attacks may be based.
French prosecutors had charged 88 suspects across 12 wrench attack investigations by late April, including ten minors. Seventy-five suspects were being held in pretrial detention at the time.
The National Anti-Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office has since recorded more than 70 kidnappings and unlawful detentions connected to cryptocurrency during the first eight months of 2026.
Wrench attacks increasingly involve victims’ homes
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis estimated that physical attacks against crypto holders extracted more than $30 million worldwide during the first half of 2026.
Its data documented 46 attacks during the period, but only 12 resulted in payments to the attackers, producing a success rate of 26%. France accounted for 30 publicly documented incidents under the firm’s methodology.
Home invasions represented 37% of the incidents tracked by Chainalysis during the first half, compared with 14% in 2025. Family members or acquaintances of cryptocurrency holders accounted for roughly 25% to 30% of documented cases.
Security firm CertiK recorded 52 wrench attacks worldwide during the first six months of 2026, up 33.3% from 39 during the same period in 2025.
Financial exposure connected to those incidents reached $124.1 million, compared with approximately $10.5 million a year earlier. CertiK’s figure covered stolen funds, ransom demands, frozen assets and other values associated with the cases, meaning the total did not represent confirmed proceeds obtained by attackers.
France accounted for 33 of the 52 incidents in CertiK’s dataset. Home invasions rose from one documented case in the first half of 2025 to 20 during the same period this year, while kidnappings increased from 12 to 16.
