Four suspects entered the home of a cryptocurrency worker in Vendin-le-Vieil, a town in northern France’s Pas-de-Calais region, overnight on September 19 and held his family captive while forcing him to make a €40,000 cryptocurrency transfer, French broadcaster BFMTV reported on Sunday, citing a police source. The intruders fled before officers arrived, leaving the family in a state of shock.
A Family Confined Overnight
The suspects forced their way into the house during the night from Saturday to Sunday and sequestered a couple and their two children, aged 8 and 12. The father, who works in the cryptocurrency sector, was assaulted, and his daughter was struck in the face with a set of car keys, according to a source close to the investigation. The family was treated by firefighters after the four suspects left, and the local branch of the France Victimes association has been called in to provide support. Investigators have not said whether the family was chosen at random or specifically targeted.
A Forced €40,000 Crypto Transfer
The Bethune prosecutor’s office said the attackers searched the property before threatening the father to force him to make a cryptocurrency transfer worth €40,000. The father was the only family member pressed to hand over funds, and it was not immediately clear whether the transfer was completed before the attackers left. The episode is the latest in which criminals have directly targeted people who hold or work with digital assets, rather than hacking an exchange or protocol. It echoes extortion schemes such as the $3 million Monero ransom demand recently made against Revolut after a customer data breach, underscoring how crypto holdings have become a physical-safety risk as well as a digital one.
Investigation Opened as Suspects Remain at Large
French authorities have opened an investigation for sequestration and extortion by an organised gang, a serious charge that carries substantial penalties. The case has been handed to the interdepartmental judicial police of Pas-de-Calais and Nord, working alongside OFAC, France’s office for combating cybercrime, reflecting the cross-border reach of cases that mix physical coercion with digital assets. With the four suspects still on the run, the inquiry adds to a widening pattern of crypto-related crime that has drawn a coordinated enforcement response, including a recent seven-arrest money laundering bust across the UAE and Sweden.
