In 2025, physical attacks targeting cryptocurrency holders increased by 75% year-on-year, resulting in losses exceeding 40.9 million dollars

According to market news, the latest report from blockchain security company CertiK shows that physical attacks (i.e., "violent attacks") against cryptocurrency holders surged in 2025, with a total of 72 recorded incidents throughout the year, a year-on-year increase of 75%, resulting in losses exceeding $40.9 million.

The report states that such attacks have evolved from marginal risks to structural threats, with kidnapping becoming the most common method, and personal attack incidents increasing by 250% year-on-year. There has been a significant change in the geographic distribution of attacks: Europe has become a major hotspot, accounting for over 40% of global incidents, with France recording 19 incidents, the highest in the world; the U.S. share has drastically dropped from 36.6% in 2024 to 12.5%; Asia still accounts for about 33.3% of high-risk areas.

CertiK recommends that individual users adopt defensive strategies such as setting up decoy wallets, geographically isolating recovery phrases from hardware wallets, and reducing their public cryptocurrency footprint; institutions and high-net-worth individuals should consider implementing multi-signature wallet architectures, setting up time-lock smart contracts, and establishing executive protection agreements.