"Wrench attacks" are rampant! The son of the Ukrainian mayor was murdered, and Spanish authorities warn that organized crime may be involved.

From Austria to Spain, two murders reveal the growing physical crisis in the crypto world, where criminals are moving from hacking to violent extortion in order to seize digital assets. From the kidnapping of the son of a Ukrainian mayor to government authorities’ warnings about organized crime, such incidents known as “wrench attacks (wrench attack)” are pushing the security risks of cryptocurrencies to the level of personal safety.

Burning the car and destroying evidence and emptying the wallet: The encrypted motive behind the murder of the Ukrainian son emerges

Danylo Kuzmin, the son of 21-year-old Serhii Kuzmin, the deputy mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine, was found dead in a burned car in Vienna’s Danube district at the end of November, TSN ua reported.

Danylo Kuzmin photo with a burned car

Forensic identification showed that the deceased had been severely beaten before his death, with severe head injuries, broken teeth, and no traces of smoke in his lungs, indicating that he was dead or near death before the vehicle was set on fire. The police initially deduced that the murderer forced Kuzmin to hand over the crypto wallet password during the violence, and it was later discovered that the wallet transferred a considerable amount of cryptocurrency.

The son of an ambassador abroad and a former customs officer were involved in a crypto crime: political identity intertwined crypto crime

The background of the suspect has also attracted great attention, and Austrian authorities have detained two Ukrainian nationals, including a 19-year-old university student who is said to be a classmate of the deceased, who is the stepson of the Ukrainian ambassador to Bulgaria, and the other is a 45-year-old former Ukrainian customs officer.

The investigation revealed that after Kuzmin’s murder, his crypto wallet was completely emptied and criminal evidence related to the car was destroyed, reinforcing the inference of money motives. Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said this was a humanitarian tragedy and declined to comment further.

( the crisis behind the crypto world is lurking: excessive display of wealth may lead to ) threats of kidnapping, robbery and murder

Crisis lurks: Spain warns of the threat of crypto kidnapping and extortion syndicates

Recently, Spanish police also revealed another cryptocurrency kidnapping case. Authorities, in collaboration with Danish police, arrested five people in Spain and charged four other suspects, uncovering a violent criminal syndicate that specifically targets cryptocurrency holders.

The investigation pointed out that the victim man and his partner were threatened with guns by gangsters near Malaga in an attempt to force them to hand over their crypto wallet permissions, and eventually the man was killed and abandoned in the forest. During the search operation, the police seized the tools of the crime, the clothing of the parties involved and communication equipment, confirming that it was an organized and planned extortion operation.

Encryption cannot stop violence, and to get rich, you must first protect yourself

Recent cases point to an increasingly rampant trend, where every move of crypto investors is not only monitored on-chain, but may also be dangerous on social media and in real life.

The so-called “wrench attack (wrench attack)” refers to cryptocurrency-related kidnappings, where victims are forced to hand over their wallet passwords through violence, which is becoming an inevitable reality in the crypto world.

Investors can only maintain anonymity and low-profile in public, avoid exposing wallet addresses and real activities, or entrust third-party custody to ensure personal safety.

( showing off their wealth and creating a crisis, how can crypto investors avoid becoming victims of “wrench attacks”? )

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