After delivering mind-numbing wealth to a number of people, cryptocurrency riches are bringing an unwarranted add-on to those who have benefitted — the threat of kidnapping.

People with public ties to cryptocurrency are now being violently kidnapped and tortured in extortion attempts. There have been at least five such efforts in the past few months in Paris, but the problem is a worldwide one, with recent cases being reported in Pakistan, Hong Kong, and the United States.

The attacks have been dubbed “wrench attacks,” after a popular online comic that depicts hackers foiled by encryption turning to a $5 wrench to beat a password out of a computer owner.

Cryptocurrency exchange platform Paymium says the incidents are “creating a climate of insecurity.” The problem is so severe in some circles that one company is offering insurance policies to protect people.

A well known early Bitcoiner has kept a running tally of wrench attacks around the globe that grows longer by the week. He has documented more than 20 attacks already this year after 24 in 2024 and 18 in 2023. Jameson Lopp says the actual number of attacks is probably much higher because some victims may not want to report them for fear of being revictimized.

A Texas online streaming star became a victim in March after revealing she held $20 million in cryptocurrency in a social media post. Three armed teenagers broke into Kaitlyn Siragusa’s Houston home days later and attacked her.

“I thought I was going to die because they kept beating me,” Ms. Siragusa told KHOU-TV. “They kept saying, ‘Where’s the crypto, where’s the crypto?'” Her husband shot at the suspects and they fled. The teens and a getaway driver were all arrested.

One of the most recent kidnapping attempts took place on the streets of Paris earlier this week. Three masked men jumped out of a parked van and wrestled a woman — the daughter of a co-founder of a French cryptocurrency platform — and her young daughter to the ground.

In the hair-raising incident, which was caught on video, her partner was able to prevent the attackers from pulling her into the van. The assailants fled when a witness threatened them with a fire extinguisher.

A populist, right-wing political figure, Marine LePen, seized on the video as an example of out-of-control crime in France, posting on X that, “As in the worst drug-trafficking countries, women and children are now the victims of kidnapping attempts in the heart of Paris.”

In another incident, the father of a man who made his fortune in cryptocurrencies was kidnapped in Paris. The kidnappers severed one of the man’s fingers and sent a video of the mutilation to his son along with another showing his father tied up. They demanded millions of euros in ransom. The man was rescued in a police raid after two days of abuse.

A Cambridge University study found that some wrench attacks are being carried out by organized crime groups but some are blamed on friends or even family members.

A bitcoin storage firm, AnchorWatch, has convinced Lloyd’s of London to include wrench attacks in a $100 million insurance policy for customers. The company charges 0.55 percent of a customer’s crypto holdings per year for the policy.

French interior minister Bruno Retailleau said he plans to meet with industry executives amid calls to bolster security for cryptocurrency firms due to the violence.