Briefly
- A crypto investor was arrested in NYC for kidnapping and torturing a person for entry to his Bitcoin pockets.
- The sufferer escaped after weeks of captivity in an upscale Manhattan condominium.
- It comes amid a rising pattern in violent ‘wrench assaults’ worldwide.
A crypto investor has been arrested and charged with kidnapping and torturing one other man in a violent bid to acquire entry to his Bitcoin pockets, prosecutors mentioned Saturday, in response to a Saturday report by the Related Press.
John Woeltz, 37, was taken into custody Friday evening after his alleged sufferer escaped a luxurious Manhattan townhouse the place he had been held captive for weeks. In accordance with prosecutors, the person was certain, crushed, drugged, and electrocuted as a part of a protracted try to pressure him to surrender his password.
The sufferer, a 28-year-old Italian nationwide, arrived in New York in early Could and was kidnapped on Could 6. He ultimately managed to flee on Friday after pretending to retrieve his password from one other room.
Woeltz was arraigned Saturday on prices of kidnapping, assault, illegal imprisonment, and weapons possession, and was ordered to be held with out bail.
Prosecutors mentioned Woeltz was not performing alone, citing an “unapprehended male” co-conspirator. A search of the property revealed cocaine, a noticed, rooster wire, evening imaginative and prescient goggles and Polaroids of the sufferer with a gun to his head.
Growing threats to crypto individuals
As digital property develop in worth and profile, criminals are more and more turning to violence to bypass encryption and acquire entry to individuals’s wallets by means of brute pressure.
The incident highlights a disturbing pattern in so-called “wrench assaults,” bodily assaults designed to forcibly extract cryptocurrency credentials from victims.
Safety consultants have famous an uptick in such incidents in 2025. Jameson Lopp, CTO of safety agency Casa, has tracked a minimum of 26 bodily crypto-related assaults this yr alone, starting from kidnappings to residence invasions.
Amongst them, the daughter of a French crypto govt was focused alongside her baby in an tried abduction final week.
Additionally, earlier this month, an American vacationer was drugged by a pretend Uber driver who emptied $123,000 from his crypto wallets.
In January, Ledger co-founder David Balland had his finger severed throughout a ransom try. A number of different assaults in France additionally featured the sufferer dropping a finger.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
Each day Debrief Publication
Begin every single day with the highest information tales proper now, plus unique options, a podcast, movies and extra.