Most Influential: The Wrench Attackers

CoinDesk News Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Most Influential: The Wrench Attackers Perpetrators use various tactics, including posing as delivery drivers or waiting at gyms, homes, or hotel rooms, to target victims and demand access to their wallets. By Francisco Rodrigues | Edited by Cheyenne Ligon Dec 10, 2025, 3:00 p.m. Cryptocurrencies are digital assets, by nature incorporeal and intangible. Some even call them "magic internet money." Yet cryptocurrency investors aren’t immune to the physical realities of our world. One of the most influential forces in the space this year was the slew of violent attacks that leveraged physical violence, intimidation, and fear to steal people's crypto. The “wrench attack,” once a meme about how no amount of encryption can stop a metal object to the head, became all too real in 2025. From Paris to New York to Sweden to Thailand , a new wave of threats emerged this year, where the price of holding your own keys wasn't limited to volatility and phishing schemes, but physical violence against crypto holders began to ramp up. These weren’t isolated events. Crypto OG Jameson Lopp has been tracking known physical bitcoin-related attacks and has now registered more than 260 cases since 2014, with incidents of wrench attacks up at least 169% this year alone. And Lopp's numbers are based on attacks that have been reported in the news — meaning the true size of the wrench attack epidemic could be even bigger. Perpetrators range from organized gangs to opportunists who used on-chain footprints, luxury purchases, and social media oversharing to pick their marks. Some posed as delivery drivers. Others waited at gyms, homes, or hotel rooms. The message was the same: give up the wallet, or else. As a result, physical security is now a front-line issue in crypto. Lopp has been campaigning to promote protection against wrench attacks . Being safe in crypto doesn’t just mean holding your private key, but now also involves physical security. Depending on an investor's profile, this could be anything from increased operational security (OpSec) to hiring armed bodyguards. For some people, it also means another insurance policy. Some well-known companies, including insurance giant Lloyd's of London, have started offering their clients coverage in the case of wrench attacks or related kidnappings. On top of that, wallet developers have started integrating security features like codes that trigger silent alerts or wipe out data. Kidnapping Ledger CoinDesk Most Influential 2025 More For You Protocol Research: GoPlus Security By CoinDesk Research Nov 14, 2025 Commissioned by GoPlus What to know : As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M. GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month. Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B. View Full Report More For You Most Influential: Pump.fun By Francisco Rodrigues | Edited by Cheyenne Ligon 1 minute ago The platform saw massive success in 2025, with over $150 billion in cumulative volume, $138 million in monthly revenue, and a notable $500 million token sale in July. Read full story Latest Crypto News Most Influential: Pump.fun 1 minute ago Most Influential: Hayden Davis 1 minute ago Ether Digital Asset Treasury Companies Outpace Peers as Crypto Tailwinds Build: B. Riley 9 minutes ago BONK Slips as Governance Vote Nears, Testing Key Technical Support 11 minutes ago Teacher’s Union Says U.S. Senate Crypto Bill Puts Pensions and Economy at Risk: CNBC 21 minutes ago BNB Lags Wider Market Despite Volume Surge Resistance Levels Hold 26 minutes ago Top Stories Eric Trump's American Bitcoin and Anthony Pompliano's ProCap Add to BTC Holdings 41 minutes ago Telegram Ring Ran Pump-and-Dump Network That Netted $800K in a Month: Solidus Labs 1 hour ago Superstate Rolls Out Direct Stock Issuance for Public Companies on Ethereum, Solana 2 hours ago Bitcoin Volatility Is Still Compressing, Dimming Year-End Rally Outlook 1 hour ago Crypto Markets Today: Fed Rate-Cut Hopes Lift BTC, ETH as Traders Brace for Volatility 3 hours ago Binance Co-CEO Yi He’s WeChat Account Hacked to Push Memecoin MUBARA 9 hours ago