French police have reportedly arrested six people, including a minor, in connection with the kidnapping of a 35-year-old judge and her 67-year-old mother as part of a cryptocurrency-linked ransom plot targeting the judge’s crypto-entrepreneur partner.
According to France 24 reportciting AFP, the judge’s partner received her photo and a threat to mutilate the hostages if payment in cryptocurrencies was not made.
The two women were held for about 30 hours in a garage in the Drôme region before they managed to raise the alarm and escape without paying the ransom.
The case comes amid a wider rise in cryptocurrency-related kidnappings in France. In 2025, French authorities charged 25 suspects, including several minors, in connection with a series of kidnappings and attempted kidnappings of cryptocurrency investors and executives in exchange for an allegedly demanded ransom for digital assets.
Related: The number of key attacks on cryptocurrency holders is growing and becoming “more brutal”
In the same year, an attempted abduction of the daughter and grandson of Pierre Noizat, co-founder and CEO of the French cryptocurrency exchange Paymium, was thwarted because the victim resisted and fled from the attackers.
Previous cases in France include the assault of a Ledger wallet user near Paris, in which the attackers tried to force the victim to send cryptocurrencies, and the kidnapping of Ledger co-founder David Balland and his partner, in which Balland had part of his finger cut off before being released.
Kidnappings ‘happen every 2 days’
France has attracted the attention of crypto security researchers, tracking so-called “key attacks,” physical assaults, home burglaries and kidnappings aimed at extracting private keys.
Bitcoin (BTC) security advocate Jameson Lopp he said on Friday that “8 of the 10 key attacks so far this year have occurred in France.”
Related: Why are key attacks becoming one of the most brutal forms of crypto crime?
French programmer and Bitcoin founder Kevin Loaec also raised this issue alarm in X, writing that “France is really screwed up.” He said he had to explain to his relatives living there that “at this stage, they will be kidnapped someday. And there is nothing I can do about it.”
In the same thread he stated that “kidnappings [are] “is currently happening in France every two days” and warned that it no longer matters whether you are a eminent person or not.
“It’s just an appearance[s] randomly happen to anyone who used bitcoin in some way, went to meetings, paid taxes on it,” he said, describing the problem as one of weak deterrence, not technology. “The kidnappers are basically not punished,” he added.
Video journalist and influencer Joe Nakamoto issued a harsh statement warning own: “If you are a broken bitcoiner or crypto person in France. LEAVE. LEAVE. They attack keys every day.”
A global problem, not only in France
Security experts advise that the use of technical tools such as time-locked vaults, decoy wallets and withdrawal delays are only part of the answer, agreeing that adopting discreet behavior is crucial wherever self-managed cryptocurrencies are stored.
Even though France has made headlines for physical attacks on cryptocurrency holders, the United States remains the country with the highest cumulative number recorded key attacks over an extended period, with cases of cryptocurrency-related brute force being documented in many other regions, indicating that this trend is global and not unique to France.
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