Can Panic Wallets Stop A Wrench? Why Crypto’s Next Security Debate...
Jameson Lopp’s wrench attack data shows physical assaults on crypto holders surging in 2025, forcing a reckoning over whether self‑custody is worth the physical risk.
On Dec. 1 in Val‑d’Oise, France, the father of a Dubai‑based crypto entrepreneur was kidnapped off the street. It was another entry in Jameson Lopp’s directory of 225‑plus verified physical attacks on digital asset holders.
The database that Lopp, chief security officer at Bitcoin wallet Casa, has maintained for six years, shows the pace of coercion rising fast, with a 169% jump in reported physical attacks in 2025.
The risk itself isn’t unique to crypto: Gold brokers, luxury resellers, even cash couriers have faced violence for centuries. What’s new is that digital assets are now being stolen face‑to‑face.
The shift is fueling a new arms race in wallet design. “Panic wallets” have duress triggers that can instantly wipe balances, send false decoys or call for help with a subtle biometric gesture.
The idea sounds elegant until you add a wrench. As Lopp told Cointelegraph, “Ultimately, use of duress wallets relies upon speculation about the attacker, and you can’t possibly know their motivations and knowledge.”
Lopp’s findings suggest wrench attacks follow market cycles. They rise during bull runs and periods of intense over‑the‑counter (OTC) trading, when large deals move off exchanges. The US leads in absolute cases, although the per-capita risk is higher in the United Arab Emirates and Iceland.
About a quarter of incidents are home invasions, often aided by leaked Know Your Customer (KYC) data (as Lopp laments, “Kill Your Customer”) or public‑records doxing. Another 23% are kidnappings. Two‑thirds of attacks succeed, and about 60% of known perpetrators are caught.
The trend line correlates roughly with Bitcoin’s (BTC) price chart. Each retail mania pulls new money and new targets into public view, and criminals chase return on investment like everyone else.
Related: Crypto user attacked in France over Ledger hardware wallet — Report
Source: CoinTelegraph
