Cyberattacks

Las Vegas, Bitcoin 2026 conference. On the surface, everything looks familiar: booths packed with mining hardware, Bitcoin-logo T-shirts, endless networking parties. But it only takes a closer look at how top crypto executives move through the venue to realize something has changed. They are surrounded by people in tailored suits wearing the unmistakable transparent coiled earpieces. These are not assistants or colleagues. They are professional bodyguards — former military personnel and private security contractors.

Step into one of the overcrowded seminars, and you may hear a topic that would have sounded exotic just a few years ago: how to protect your assets during a physical home invasion. The crypto industry, built on ideals of anonymity and decentralization, has run into the most primitive and terrifying threat imaginable — physical violence.

The threat known in security circles as a “wrench attack” — when a victim is beaten until they surrender a password — is no longer a dark joke shared among cybersecurity professionals. It has become the industry’s reality.

A database maintained by custody solutions provider Casa shows that such attacks have tripled since 2023. CertiK’s statistics are even more alarming: in 2025, the number of confirmed physical incidents rose by seventy-five percent. Seventy-two documented cases. Forty-one million dollars in losses. And those are only the incidents that became public. CertiK analysts are blunt in their assessment: 2025 marked a turning point, when physical violence became a primary threat vector for crypto holders.

The criminals’ logic is simple and ruthless. Cryptocurrency was designed to eliminate intermediaries. There is no bank that can freeze a transfer, no regulator that can lock an account. The private key is the only thing separating an owner from their fortune. And that also makes it the perfect target.

Steal the...