KYC Data Breaches Fuel Rise in Attacks on Crypto Investors

Alena Vranova, founder of SatoshiLabs, has reported an increase in physical attacks on cryptocurrency holders. She made this statement at the Baltic Honeybadger 2025 conference in Riga.

According to her, criminals are kidnapping and torturing individuals to obtain their private keys. Vranova noted that even small-scale investors are being targeted.

“At least one Bitcoiner is kidnapped somewhere in the world every week. We have seen cases of kidnappings for as little as $6,000 in cryptocurrency and murders over assets worth $50,000,” she stated.

Vranova identified data breaches from centralized platforms, which collect customer information as part of KYC procedures, as the main cause of the rise in such attacks. Criminals use this information to locate victims.

“Currently, data on over 80 million cryptocurrency holders is available online. Of these, 2.2 million records include home addresses,” Vranova added.

She also emphasized that the frequency of attacks is linked to the price of Bitcoin and increases during bull markets.

In May, the exchange Coinbase reported a breach that affected a small portion of its clients, revealing their home addresses among other details.