The wife of Sébastien Borget, co-founder and chief operating officer of The Sandbox, an Ethereum-based virtual world platform, reportedly narrowly escaped being kidnapped at the couple’s home in Villenoy, Seine-et-Marne, France, this week.

 

According to Le Journal du Dimanche, a local French newspaper, one of the kidnappers disguised as a deliveryman wearing a branded vest, knocked on the couple’s home.

 

On opening the gate, five other hooded accomplices charged at Borget’s wife in an attempt to forcefully drag her into a vehicle. However, her cries alerted neighbors, forcing the group to scatter and leave the victim behind.

 

Four suspects escaped in the vehicle, while two others fled on foot and hid nearby. The two suspects attempted to book a ride-hailing car but were later captured by officers from the Meaux Anti-Crime Brigade.

 

The two suspects arrested were identified as Mateo V. and Walid H., reportedly born in 2010 and 2009, respectively, and are both residents of Pantin in Seine-Saint-Denis. They were found carrying a fake handgun, zip tie restraints, and balaclavas.

 

While investigations are ongoing, local news reports have linked the attempted kidnapping to cryptocurrencies, citing an increase in crypto-related wrench attacks and kidnapping incidents reported this year.

 

France Remains a Hotspot for Crypto Wrench Attacks

There has been an increase in attacks on crypto holders, with France leading and becoming the global epicenter.

 

In just the first four months of this year, between 41 and 47 incidents were reported in France, an average of one incident every 2.5 days. The French authorities have also charged 88 suspects, including more than 10 minors, across 12 major investigations, with 75 in pretrial detention.

 

Jameson Lopp, cofounder and chief security officer of Casa, a well-known blockchain security company, has long been tracking these crypto-wrench attacks in a GitHub repository named "physical bitcoin attacks." According to the repository, there have been about 35 recorded incidents this year, with France accounting for 74 percent of those, or 26 incidents in total.

 

To help combat the increasing number of wrench attacks, Binance recently added a withdrawal protection feature to the Binance wallet that activates a lockdown period, preventing withdrawals from the wallet, especially by intruders.