Three people stole nearly $1 million in Bitcoin from a couple who were stabbed in their home.
The Bitcoin Crime Modus Operandi
The French outlet TF1 Info reported this today that early Monday morning a man and a woman in their late fifties were held captive in their home in Le Chesnay, Yvelines (France), by three persons posing as police officers.
Related reading
According to the TF1 report, the woman opened the door of her home when the individuals identified themselves as police, only to be pushed inside along with her husband and abducted. The slightly injured woman and her husband were forced onto their couch, where the man was tied up by the kidnappers. One of the individuals then pulled out a knife and threatened to attack the woman if her husband did not transfer the equivalent of $900,000 in bitcoin. When the robbery was completed around 9 a.m., the people fled in a white van. Only then was the injured woman able to untie her husband and call neighbors for help.
The research
No arrests have been made yet. The Versailles prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for kidnapping and armed robbery by an organized gang, as well as criminal conspiracy, TF1 reported. The investigation is carried out by the Brigade de répression du banditisme (BRB).
Related reading
From online exploits to violent offline attacks
This isn’t an isolated horror: it’s just the latest entry in a growing registry of real-world Bitcoin heists.
On March 4 as reported by our sister website Bitcoinistveteran trader ‘Mr Silly’ fell victim to a multi-million dollar theft, in which address poisoning and an offline heist together stripped him of approximately $24 million and pushed him out of the market. On November 24, 2025, an armed robber entered a home in San Francisco posing as a delivery person. The modus operandi was quite similar to that of the Le Chesnay crime: the homeowner was tied up and the attacker took the victim’s cell phone, laptop and $11 million in cryptocurrency.
In France, kidnappings for cryptocurrencies have multiplied since 2025, TF1 claims. In January last year, Ledger co-founder David Balland was kidnapped and later released by police. Last month, on February 12, the head of Binance France was targeted by three (ill-prepared) hooded individuals in a botched home invasion at his apartment in Val-de-Marne. RTL News reports this.
For Bitcoin holders, the lesson is brutally simple: the attack surface has moved from your seed phrase to your front door
BTC's price trends to the upside on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSDT on Tradingview
Cover image of Perplexity, BTCUSDT chart from Tradingview