France recorded 41 crypto kidnappings in just 3.5 months of 2026. Telegram founder Pavel Durov posted the figure on X this week. French authorities confirmed more than 40 crypto-linked abductions or attempted kidnappings since January. That is a sharp rise from around 30 cases across all of 2025. The pace now runs at roughly one attack every 2.5 days.
Why crypto holders make easy targets
Unlike a bank account, a crypto wallet can be emptied in seconds. Once attackers obtain the private keys or credentials, transfers are instant and cannot be undone. There is no fraud team to call and no way to recover the funds. That makes crypto holders a natural target for so-called wrench attacks.
The method is blunt: show up in person and force someone to open their wallet. Attackers force victims to transfer funds on the spot. Unlike a bank withdrawal, the transaction settles in minutes with no institution able to reverse it. Police say criminal groups often cross-reference leaked databases against social media profiles to identify targets. Methods range from short-term abductions to prolonged ransom ordeals. Networks based abroad run many of the operations.
The cases have been piling up fast. This month, a woman and her 11-year-old son were kidnapped in Burgundy ahead of a crypto ransom demand. Around 100 officers were deployed to free them, and seven suspects were arrested. In Anglet the same month, five suspects went looking for a crypto investor and abducted the wrong person entirely. They were caught later at Paris Montparnasse station. Still, French prosecutors have since charged 88 people, including minors, across at least a dozen cases. One of the worst came in January 2025. Ledger co-founder David Balland was kidnapped, had a finger severed, and was freed the next day.
Data breaches and Durov’s allegations
Durov’s post did more than cite numbers. He alleged that French tax officials sold crypto owner data directly to criminals. He also said large-scale database leaks had given attackers a map of wealthy holders. The claim about tax officials is unverified. But France’s data exposure problems are real and documented.
France’s Agency for Secure Documents reportedly exposed data on around 19 million people, including names, addresses, and phone numbers. Security researcher Seb Latombe counted more than 300 breached French services since the start of 2026. In total, 23 million accounts were compromised and over 250 million records exposed. France Titres alone accounted for more than 11.7 million of those. State payment agencies, police systems, and student platforms were among those hit.
Durov also used the moment to pick a fight with French authorities over surveillance policy. He warned that broader government access to private messages would multiply casualties if those systems were ever breached.
In a follow-up, he wrote that Telegram would rather leave France than comply. He would not hand encrypted messages to what he called “corrupt bureaucrats.” France has previously investigated Durov over Telegram’s content moderation. His comments are both a security warning and a political shot.
