French cryptocurrency practitioners' entire family was kidnapped, approximately $46,000 worth of cryptocurrency was transferred away

A family in the northern French town of Vendin-le-Vieil was invaded and taken hostage by four masked men early Sunday morning. According to BFMTV, the suspects entered the house around 4 AM, binding the couple and their two children with tape, and held them for over three hours. The 40-year-old father, an IT expert in the local cryptocurrency industry, was taken to another room, beaten, and forced to give up access codes, resulting in approximately 40,000 euros (about 46,000 dollars) worth of cryptocurrency being transferred away.

According to the Béthune prosecutor's office, the four suspects fled the scene by car and are still at large. The 12-year-old daughter was struck in the face with a car key during the incident, and the victims are in a state of shock; they have been sent for forensic examination and are receiving support from the victims' assistance association. The case has been filed under organized gang kidnapping and extortion and is being jointly investigated by the regional judicial police and the French Cybercrime Office.

France is the country most severely affected by such "ransom attacks" globally. Records from the national prosecutor's office for organized crime show that over 70 kidnapping and illegal detention incidents related to cryptocurrency have occurred in the first eight months of 2026, with 88 people already prosecuted in earlier crackdowns this year. Previous similar cases often targeted wealthy individuals, including the father of a cryptocurrency millionaire, the wife of a co-founder of The Sandbox, and the CEO of Binance France, while the victim in this case is merely an ordinary IT professional. Chainalysis reported that global ransom attacks in 2026 resulted in approximately 30 million dollars in losses, while CertiK stated that losses over six months reached 124 million dollars, a 12-fold increase.