France recorded 77 crypto-related kidnapping and extortion attempts in the first half of 2026, according to Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, as authorities rolled out new protection and warning measures.
A couple in their 50s in France was attacked by three knife-wielding robbers posing as police and forced to transfer roughly €900,000 in Bitcoin. The case highlights the growing threat of physical crypto extortion in France and across Europe.
The FBI’s IC3 said Americans reported $11.37 billion in crypto-related scam losses in 2025, up about 22% year over year. Investment fraud led the damage, while older adults suffered the biggest losses.
UAE authorities found the bodies of Russian crypto blogger Roman Novak and his wife near Hatta after an alleged kidnapping and torture scheme aimed at stealing crypto wallet access. Three Russian suspects have been arrested in the case.
Reuters reported that Coinbase was alerted to a customer data leak at outsourcing partner TaskUs about four months before disclosing a breach that could cost the exchange $400 million, raising fresh concerns about vendor oversight and user safety.
Reuters reported that Coinbase was alerted months before publicly disclosing a customer data leak linked to outsourcing partner TaskUs. The incident may cost the exchange up to $400 million and has intensified scrutiny of data security in crypto.
Coinbase was informed of a customer data leak at outsourcing partner Taskus four months before a $400 million breach became public. The exchange only acted after a $20 million extortion attempt by hackers.
Bitcoin rose 4% last week, with Ethereum and Solana gaining more. However, multiple security incidents shook confidence: Kraken faces criminal extortion, CoW Swap suffered a DNS hijack, and Hyperbridge was exploited to mint 1 billion DOT. Whale buying is the strongest since 2013, potentially pushing BTC to $90K.
