Physical attacks targeting cryptocurrency holders in 2025 increased by 75% year-over-year, resulting in losses exceeding $40.9 million

PANews February 2 News, according to Decrypt, blockchain security firm CertiK’s latest report shows that physical attacks (i.e., “brute force attacks”) targeting cryptocurrency holders surged in 2025, with a total of 72 recorded incidents throughout the year, a 75% increase year-over-year, resulting in losses exceeding $40.9 million. The report states that such attacks have evolved from marginal risks to structural threats, with kidnapping becoming the most common method, and personal attack incidents soaring by 250% year-over-year. There has been a significant shift in attack distribution: Europe has become the hardest-hit region, accounting for over 40% of global incidents, with France leading at 19 incidents; the United States’ share dropped sharply from 36.6% in 2024 to 12.5%; Asia remains a high-risk area, accounting for about 33.3%.
CertiK recommends individual users adopt defensive strategies such as setting up decoy wallets, geographically isolating seed phrases and hardware wallets, and reducing public cryptocurrency footprints; institutions and high-net-worth individuals should consider using multi-signature wallet architectures, setting up time-locked smart contracts, and establishing executive protection protocols.