Wrench Attack

Mexican musician Jonathan Meléndez, his pregnant wife, their three-year-old daughter and a household worker were killed in an alleged robbery targeting a cold wallet that the attackers believed contained millions of dollars in Bitcoin. Estado de México prosecutors arrested Diego Sebastián “N” and Gerardo “N” over the September 1 killings in Atizapán de Zaragoza. Meléndez’s six-year-old son survived the attack, while the family’s dog was also killed. Suspects Allegedly Searched for Bitcoin Cold Wallet Investigators allege that Diego Sebastián had…

Three Missouri men have been charged over an alleged plan to invade a Connecticut home and force the occupants to transfer Bitcoin connected to one of the largest U.S. crypto theft cases. Sedric Louis, 32, John Davis, 34, and Martel Williams, 27, all from St. Louis, were added to the case through a second superseding indictment returned on May 22. Each faces conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, known as Hobbs Act robbery, carrying a maximum sentence of 20…

A Chinese real estate business owner living in Phnom Penh has been killed after kidnappers demanded $2 million in cryptocurrency from his wife. The victim, identified as Yang Weixin, was a 53-year-old Chinese national and real estate company owner living in the Cambodian capital. His body was found on May 30 in a white Toyota Prius abandoned in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district. The abduction began the previous night. Security footage from Yang’s apartment building showed three unidentified men forcing him…

A crypto wrench attack is a physical coercion attack against a crypto holder. Instead of hacking a wallet, cracking encryption, or exploiting a smart contract, the attacker pressures the person who controls the funds. The target may be threatened, robbed, kidnapped, extorted, followed, or forced to unlock a device, reveal a seed phrase, sign a transaction, withdraw from an exchange, or transfer assets to an attacker-controlled address. The name comes from the security idea that strong cryptography can be bypassed…