Kidnappers are increasingly targetting crypto millionaires in France and Spain

French police are investigating a spate of kidnappings of millionaire cryptocurrency investors after a 60-year-old man had a finger chopped off by attackers who demanded his crypto-rich son pay a ransom.
The Guardian reported that the issue is not only a French problem, but also an increasingly worrying issue in Spain and Belgium.
The most recent of several kidnappings of cryptocurrency figures in France and Western Europe, the man, who owned a crypto marketing company with his son, was freed from a house south of Paris on Saturday night. He had been held for more than two days. One of the man’s fingers had been chopped off, and investigators feared more mutilations could have happened if he had not been rescued.
The man has not been publicly identified for security reasons, but police said he was taken by four men in ski masks in broad daylight at 10.30 am on Thursday as he walked down a street in Paris’s 14th arrondissement. He was forced into a delivery van.
Rescued by police before paying ransom
The kidnap victim was rescued by armed police in a raid on a house 20km (12 miles) south of Paris, in the Essonne area. Police arrested five suspects in their 20s and are questioning them on Sunday.
“The victim appears to be the father of a man who made his fortune in cryptocurrencies, with the crime involving a ransom demand,” the state prosecutor said.
The victim’s wife told investigators that her husband and wealthy son, who both owned a crypto marketing firm in Malta, had received threats in the past.
Le Parisien reported that the attackers had demanded a ransom of €5-7m (£4-6m), which was unpaid.
Ledger co-founder was also kidnapped but rescued
The kidnapping is the latest in a series of abductions of cryptocurrency figures in France and neighbouring countries.
Another victim, David Balland. He is the co-founder of Ledger, a popular cold storage wallet manufacturer, which is valued at more than $1bn. Balland was taken with his partner on January 21st from their home in Méreau, near Bourges in central France. His captors also cut off his finger.
Balland’s kidnappers sent a video and the finger to his partner asking for about €10m. Balland was freed in a police raid soon after.
Nine suspects are under criminal investigation in that case, including the alleged ringleader, 26, who has a police record for a previous kidnapping. In late 2024, another case was reported, as well as in Spain and Belgium, in the past five months.