Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan was renting a luxury New York townhouse for $40,000 a month, enjoying the fruits of his highly lucrative investments in cryptocurrency. But in May, his 17-room Manhattan home became a torture chamber in which he was held by kidnappers for 17 days.

Carturan’s captors, John Woeltz and William Duplessie, who wanted access to his cryptocurrency accounts, used brutal methods in their bid to prise open Carturan’s Bitcoin wallet, purportedly containing some $28m worth of cryptocurrency. Among other torture methods, they hung him from the building’s roof, shocked him with electrical wires and threatened him with a chainsaw.

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When all else failed, they forced him to smoke crack cocaine. Ultimately, they were unsuccessful. After more than two gruelling weeks, Carturan managed to escape the townhouse and Woeltz and Duplessie were subsequently arrested and charged with kidnapping and assault.

Carturan’s ordeal was one of the latest in a spate of “wrench attacks”, which include so-called “crypto kidnappings”, combining high-tech cybertheft with old-fashioned thuggery and have been taking place in several countries around the world.

Have arrests for crypto kidnapping attacks been made elsewhere?

Yes. On May 31, 26 people were charged for several attempted kidnappings of a top figure in France’s cryptocurrency world, French prosecutors said.

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It was the culmination of a police investigation into an “attempted kidnapping by an organised gang” of the daughter and grandson of the CEO of crypto firm Paymium in Paris on May 13, and “other unsuccessful plans”, a failed attempt on the same targets the day before, and another attempt near the western city of Nantes on June 2.

“Eighteen people have been placed in pre-trial detention, three have requested a deferred hearing, and four have been placed under judicial supervision,” the Paris public prosecutor’s office said, concerning the Paris attack.

France has been the centre of several attacks on prominent crypto entrepreneurs in recent months. But crypto-linked kidnappings have occurred in other countries, too.

Where else have crypto kidnappings taken place?

In addition to the recent attempted abductions in Paris, a group of criminals kidnapped David Balland, cofounder of the cryptocurrency firm Ledger, and his wife in central France in January.

In a particularly gruesome turn of events, the kidnappers cut off one of Balland’s fingers and sent the video of the mutilation to Ledger. Within two days, however, the French gendarmerie had freed both victims.

Nine suspects are under criminal investigation in that case.

In December 2024, the wife of crypto investor and influencer Stephane Winkel was kidnapped from the couple’s home in Belgium. She was rescued after her kidnapper crashed his car during a dramatic police chase.

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Canada and Australia have also witnessed high-profile kidnappings, with crypto executives and traders abducted and forced to pay ransoms ranging from $40,000 to $1m in digital assets.

It is unclear whether the recent spate of crypto kidnappings is connected in any way.

What is cryptocurrency?

Bitcoin, which began trading in January 2009, was the very first cryptocurrency. This form of monetary exchange allows people to bypass central banks and traditional payment methods. It is now a functioning, decentralised monetary system, with hundreds of millions of users worldwide.

Bitcoin was first used in a transaction in 2009, valued at just $0.004 per Bitcoin. Yesterday, Bitcoin’s price closed at nearly $101,576 per Bitcoin – about 53 percent higher than a year ago, and nearly 2.5 trillion percentage points higher than in 2009.

Initially, the digital currency was favoured by internet libertarians who were drawn to the idea that money should be free from government interference. It quickly gained more mainstream popularity, and the price has shot up.

More recently, United States President Donald Trump has taken steps to mint several cryptocurrencies, meaning they would be included in a “Crypto Strategic Reserve”, boosting their price even more in the process.

While cryptocurrency thefts are nothing new, they have historically involved hacking digital accounts holding large sums of the currency. In 2022, for instance, internet thieves stole an estimated $570m from Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.

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But as Bitcoin and other digital assets continue to climb in value, criminals are shifting their efforts from online hacking to real-world extortion, via kidnappings and torture.

How do criminals target victims in crypto kidnappings?

Victims are not hard to find.

Some crypto tycoons, many of whom are young men, have a habit of flaunting their wealth on social media or by appearing at cryptocurrency conferences, which allows criminals to easily identify targets.

Many have continued to flaunt their wealth in spite of the 2016 Kim Kardashian kidnapping incident. The US reality TV star was tied up in her hotel room in Paris as robbers made off with millions of dollars worth of jewellery. The men – dubbed the “grandpa robbers” because of their ages – were later caught and sentenced to prison by a French court.

That was not a crypto attack, but as more crypto tycoons have appeared, there is little to differentiate them from the fabulously wealthy like the Kardashians.

Even those with large crypto wealth who are more cautious about displaying their wealth on social media and in public have been exposed to criminal activity via data breaches at cryptocurrency exchanges, however.

In May 2025, Coinbase Global announced that hackers had managed to obtain personal information, including the home addresses of almost 70,000 customers in the previous few months, putting thousands at risk of attack or extortion.

Besides hacking the accounts of crypto millionaires for this sort of information, criminals have also bribed insiders at crypto exchanges for customer data. This information is then used to select and find high-value targets for kidnappings or home invasions.

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Why are crypto kidnappings on the rise?

It is easier to steal money from a digital wallet than from a traditional bank account, and kidnapping is one way to do this.

Attackers simply need to gain access to someone’s cryptocurrency account password, as there’s no third-party financial institution to protect the funds held in the digital wallet.

Transactions on an open-ledger blockchain – the technology which facilitates cryptocurrencies – are also permanent, meaning transactions are irreversible.

And, unlike cash, jewellery and gold, thieves don’t need to carry away the stolen cryptocurrency with them. With a few clicks, money can simply be moved from one account to another.

Furthermore, cryptocurrency’s ability to skirt traditional law enforcement also means it is much easier to launder, making it popular with internet-based drug dealers.

Therefore, if criminals can force a victim to give up their account, they can gain immediate access to vast wealth – hence the rise in physical attacks and kidnappings.

Can you get insurance against a crypto kidnapping?

Yes, you can. At least three insurance companies which provide services for cryptocurrency investors are in the process of designing policies specifically for abductions, called kidnap and ransom (K&R) policies, according to a report by NBC News.

Becca Rubenfeld, chief operating officer at AnchorWatch – a crypto insurance firm aiming to launch K&R protection later this year – said that fear of violence was a key talking point at this year’s annual Las Vegas Bitcoin Conference, in May.

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“They’re [cryptocurrency holders are] tense,” Rubenfeld told NBC. “I’m not saying that because I’m trying to sell insurance, but overall, the mood is a very good environment for me.”

Kidnapping and ransom insurance is not uncommon for high-profile corporate executives.

What else are crypto investors doing to stay safe?

Elsewhere, security experts are urging investors to avoid sharing details of their crypto holdings online, even with friends, and to use pseudonyms and new digital wallet addresses for each transaction.

Increasingly, crypto traders are avoiding making social media posts with geotagged photos, especially any that show themselves with luxury items, or revealing their travel plans.