French National Anti-Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office: Surge in cryptocurrency kidnapping cases, with 88 people prosecuted and 75 detained

By: rootdata|2026/04/25 06:42:01

Share

copy

The French National Anti-Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office (Pnaco) has stated that cases of kidnapping and illegal detention involving cryptocurrency are continuing to surge. Among the 12 related cases currently under investigation, 88 people have been prosecuted, including more than 10 minors, and another 75 are in custody awaiting trial.

Prosecutor's data shows that since 2023, French law enforcement has recorded 135 such cases, with 18 in 2024, rising to 67 in 2025, and reaching 47 so far in 2026. Many of these cases involve violent kidnappings, ransom extortion, and forcing victims to transfer cryptocurrency assets. The prosecution pointed out that some suspects have appeared multiple times in different cases, indicating the formation of a structured criminal network behind it. The previous kidnapping incident involving Ledger co-founder David Balland is also seen as an important sign of the escalating security risks in the French cryptocurrency industry.

Popular coins

Latest Crypto News

07:42

a16z: Stablecoins are evolving from trading tools to core financial infrastructure, with Q1 trading volume reaching $4.5 trillion

a16z released the latest research indicating that stablecoins are gradually evolving from their initial role as transaction settlement tools and stores of value into global financial infrastructure. Data shows that following the regulatory clarity driven by the U.S. GENIUS Act, the stablecoin market...

07:42

Data: The current whale holdings on the Hyperliquid platform are 3.509 billion USD, with a long-short position ratio of 1.04

According to Coinglass data, the current whale holdings on the Hyperliquid platform amount to $3.509 billion, with long positions of $1.789 billion, accounting for 50.98% of the holdings, and short positions of $1.72 billion, accounting for 49.02%. The profit and loss for long positions is -$10.8753...

06:42

The Balancer attacker associated address transferred 5,609 ETH to THORChain, worth 13 million dollars

According to on-chain analysts, the Balancer attacker-associated address transferred 5,609 ETH to THORChain in the past, worth 13 million dollars.In November 2025, Balancer was stolen over 116 million dollars, with the same suspects as the Aave attack incident, both pointing to the North Korean hack...

06:42

SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic are expected to raise over $240 billion through their IPOs, potentially impacting liquidity in the cryptocurrency market

According to market news, SpaceX is expected to go public in June, potentially surpassing Saudi Aramco's $29 billion fundraising record to become the largest IPO in history. Meanwhile, OpenAI and Anthropic also plan to go public in the second half of this year, with the three companies expected to c...

06:42

Singapore police teamed up with cryptocurrency platforms to intercept over 2.86 million yuan in fraud within a month

The Singapore Police Force's Anti-Fraud Centre, in collaboration with the Cyber Investigation Department and cryptocurrency platforms such as Coinbase, Coinhako, StraitsX, and Upbit, launched a month-long special enforcement operation from March 16 to April 15 this year, successfully intercepting ov...