French authorities are investigating a series of increasingly frequent kidnappings targeting cryptocurrency users after a 26-year-old TikTok trader was abducted last weekend in Juvisy-sur-Orge, south of Paris. Police say four assailants forced the influencer into a stolen car, beat him and demanded €50,000 in digital assets. The kidnappers released the victim when they discovered his crypto wallet contained only a small balance. He was granted six days of medical leave for his injuries, and the organised-crime division has taken over the case. Just three days later, a 23-year-old man was seized while shopping in nearby Maisons-Alfort. The abductors video-called the victim’s partner and ordered her to hand over a Ledger hardware wallet and €5,000 in cash. The victim was freed hours after the hand-over, marking what security specialists say is the 10th so-called “wrench attack” – physical coercion to obtain crypto credentials – recorded in France this year. Police also reported progress in an earlier investigation: five suspects aged 17 to 22 were detained on 17 June in the Sarthe and Yvelines departments over the New Year’s Eve 2024 kidnapping of a 56-year-old man in the Ain region. Prosecutors allege the group violently abducted the father of a Dubai-based crypto entrepreneur, doused him with petrol and transported him 700 kilometres in a car boot after failing to secure a ransom. The detainees have been charged with armed robbery, extortion, kidnapping and other offences in an organised gang. Lawmakers are beginning to respond to the rise in crypto-related violence. MP Paul Midy has introduced draft legislation that would shield the residential addresses of prominent crypto figures from public registers, aiming to make it harder for criminals to locate potential targets. While prosecutors say no formal links have been established between the recent cases, the spate of attacks has intensified pressure on authorities to bolster protections for France’s growing community of digital-asset investors.