Bodily assaults concentrating on cryptocurrency holders have gotten extra frequent and more and more extreme, in accordance with a brand new evaluation of so-called “wrench assaults.”
In a Sunday publish on X, Haseeb Qureshi, who analyzed a dataset maintained by Bitcoin (BTC) safety advocate Jameson Lopp, revealed that the entire variety of reported wrench assaults has risen steadily over time, and the character of these assaults has escalated.
After categorizing incidents into 5 ranges, starting from minor assaults to deadly outcomes, the info suggests the common assault has turn into extra violent in recent times.
Lopp has spent years monitoring reported circumstances by which attackers use bodily violence or threats to steal crypto, creating one of the complete public information of the phenomenon.
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Wrench assaults rise sharply in Europe and Asia
Geographically, Western Europe and components of the Asia-Pacific area have seen the sharpest rise in violent incidents, whereas North America stays comparatively safer. Nonetheless, even North America has skilled a rise in absolute phrases.
One apparent driver is value. When charted towards whole crypto market capitalization, violent incidents rise alongside valuations. A easy regression reveals that roughly 45% of the variation in assault frequency may be defined by market cap alone, supporting the view that larger costs entice extra legal exercise.
Nonetheless, the info additionally complicates the narrative that crypto is turning into inherently extra harmful. When assaults are normalized by person progress, the image modifications. Crypto possession has expanded dramatically over the previous decade, whereas violence has not elevated on the identical tempo. On a per-user or per-dollar foundation, crypto was riskier in 2015 and 2018 than it’s immediately.
“With all of this stated, that is extra than simply an mental train. That is critical shit. Keep in mind that there is a lot you are able to do to spend money on your personal private safety in the event you’re high-risk,” Qureshi concluded.
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Pockets drainer phishing losses plunge in 2025
As Cointelegraph reported, crypto phishing assaults linked to pockets drainers fell sharply in 2025, with whole losses dropping to $83.85 million, down 83% from practically $494 million the yr earlier than, in accordance with a report by Web3 safety agency Rip-off Sniffer. The variety of victims additionally declined 68% yr over yr to about 106,000.
Regardless of the decline, Rip-off Sniffer warned that phishing exercise stays carefully tied to market cycles. Losses spiked during times of excessive onchain exercise, significantly within the third quarter, which coincided with Ethereum’s strongest rally and accounted for $31 million in losses.
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