Jean-Didier Berger, minister delegate to France’s interior minister, said authorities are adopting measures to protect cryptocurrency holders from a rising wave of crypto kidnappings and so-called wrench attacks.
Speaking at Paris Blockchain Week, Berger said his office has launched “preventative measures,” including a prevention platform that has drawn thousands of sign-ups. He added that he and Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez are preparing a more substantial plan to be unveiled in the coming weeks.
His remarks follow a reported crypto-linked abduction in Burgundy, where a mother and her 11-year-old child were allegedly kidnapped on Monday by four suspects who demanded a €400,000 ransom from the father, described as a crypto entrepreneur. Authorities apprehended the suspects and freed the victims on Tuesday morning, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
France has emerged as a notable hotspot for wrench attacks, in which victims are threatened, assaulted or coerced into transferring digital assets, and pressure is mounting on the government to act.
Wrench attacks surge in France
Since the start of the year, French media reported 41 crypto-related kidnappings, an average of about one every 2.5 days in 2026. Cybersecurity firm CertiK reported a 75% global increase in wrench attacks in 2025, totaling 72 verified cases. France recorded the most incidents in 2025, with 19 confirmed cases, and Europe accounted for roughly 40% of worldwide incidents.
Other recent cases include a French couple in their late 50s who were robbed of about $1 million in Bitcoin by criminals posing as police, reported in March. In February, French police arrested six people over the kidnapping of a magistrate and her mother in an attack tied to a crypto ransom demand aimed at the magistrate’s partner, a crypto entrepreneur.
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