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

Physical attacks on crypto users, also called “wrench attacks,” have been increasing over time. The incidents are also becoming more violent on average.

But Dragonfly partner Haseeb Qureshi found the recent uptick in violence per user is similar to that of 2021 levels but remains well below pre-2019 risk.

Crypto Wealth and Violence

In a detailed tweet, Qureshi, who referenced Bitcoin developer Jameson Lopp’s long-running database, revealed that the number of recorded attacks has increased over time and that the severity of those attacks has also risen. He explained that each incident was categorized into five levels of severity, ranging from minor to fatal, and that the average reported attack has become more violent over the years.

When broken down by geography, Qureshi said Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region have experienced the largest increases in violence, while North America remains the safest region overall, though it has still seen an increase in the absolute number of incidents.

Qureshi then examined possible explanations for the rise, starting with crypto market capitalization. He said a simple regression comparing violent incidents with total crypto market cap produced an R-squared value of 0.45, meaning about 45% of the variation in reported violence can be explained by price alone, which supported the idea that higher crypto prices attract more crime.

He added that other signals were tested, but none were as predictive as raw market cap. However, Qureshi stressed that this does not necessarily mean crypto is becoming more dangerous on a per-person basis. He proposed an alternative explanation – as prices rise, more people own crypto, which could lead to more total crimes even if the underlying risk per user stays the same.

To test this, he used Coinbase’s monthly active users as a proxy for the number of active crypto holders and also normalized attacks by total market cap as a rough measure of violence per dollar of wealth. According to Qureshi, crypto appears to have been more dangerous in earlier years, such as 2015 and 2018, when the user base was much smaller.

He noted that Coinbase MAUs grew from about 2 million in 2015 to roughly 120 million in 2025, a 60-fold increase, while violence did not rise at the same rate. While there has been a recent increase in violent events per user, Qureshi said it is moderate and is roughly in line with the 2021 level. This is still significantly lower than before 2019, and that violence per dollar of market cap has barely changed.

High-Profile Wrench Attacks

A number of serious assaults were reported in 2025. In January, Ledger co-founder David Balland was kidnapped from his home in France in a wrench attack and held for ransom for around 24 hours. Reports said Balland and his wife were taken to a nearby town, and the attackers severed one of his fingers to pressure associates into paying a ransom, before French authorities secured their release.

In another case, a US resident visiting London was targeted after being lured into the wrong vehicle while waiting for an Uber outside a nightclub. The victim, identified 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 access to his crypto accounts and ended up losing about $72,000 in XRP and $50,000 in BTC before being abandoned in an unfamiliar area.

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