jlopp / physical-bitcoin-attacks

Known Physical Bitcoin Attacks A list of known attacks against Bitcoin / crypto asset owning entities that occurred in meatspace. NOTE: this list is not comprehensive; many attacks are not publicly reported. If you are aware of an attack that is not listed, please open an issue or pull request. For more comprehensive statistical breakdowns of attack attributes, check out stats.gart.io For high level analyses and best practices, readers may be interested in this 2020 presentation: "The Hodlguard- a primer on physical security in Bitcoin" and slides. Also, Jameson's 2025 presentation with updated metrics and advice. Finally, this academic paper analyzing physical attacks using Bitcointalk as a data source. | Date | Victim | Location | Description | | :---------: |:------: | :------: | :---------: | | December 29, 2014 | Hal Finney | Santa Barbara, California, United States | Bitcoin developer SWATted after months of harrassment & extortion (original link) | | January 3, 2015 | Amanda McCollum | Atlanta, Georgia, United States | BTM thieves strike smoke shop, fire gun (original link) | | January 22, 2015 | Martin Wismeijer | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Thieves steal 2 bitcoin ATMs (original link) | | February, 2015 | Dean Katz | New York, New York, United States | Bitcoin trader robbed of $12,000 at gunpoint (original link) | | May 27, 2015 | Dwayne Richards | New York, New York, United States | Firefighter kidnapped, robbed of $1,100, & stabbed by crypto thieves (original link) | | November 16, 2015 | Robert Nederhoed | Delft, Netherlands | Thieves steal bitcoin ATM containing 2,000 EUR (original link) | | July 11, 2016 | Tadas Kasputis | Kaunas, Lithuania | Cryptocurrency executive kidnapped at car wash (original link) | | July 25, 2016 | Steve Manos | West Palm Beach, Florida, United States | Bitcoin trader robbed of $28,000 at gunpoint (original link) | | August 14, 2016 | Multiple | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Police arrest teens in string of bitcoin-related robberies (original link) | | November 6, 2016 | Tivoli Brasserie | Oudenbosch, Netherlands | Dutch Bitcoin ATM Owner Laughs at Thieves Who Took His Machine (original link) | | February 16, 2017 | Josoj | London, England | Description of robbery during Localbitcoins trade with Bitcoin Uncensored interview and the robber's side of the story. | | February 26, 2017 | Rocelo Lopes' wife | Florianopolis, Brazil | Wife of crypto exchange owner kidnapped and ransomed (original link) | | March 14, 2017 | 3 Indian Bitcoin traders | Dubai, UAE | 3 Emiratis pose as cops, kidnap victims and rob them of 25 BTC (original link) | | June 17, 2017 | Miyuki Noda | Gifu, Japan | Woman strangled, attacker takes 100,000 yen worth of BTC (original link) | | September 4, 2017 | Alexey Sherstne | Kyiv, Ukraine | Man tortured for $50k in Bitcoins (original link) | | October 16, 2017 | Jameson Lopp | Durham, North Carolina, United States | Bitcoin developer swatted & extorted (original link) | | October, 2017 | Multiple | Toulouse, France | 4 bitcoin traders robbed at gunpoint (original link) | | October, 2017 | Multiple | Los Angeles, California, United States | "Discount Bitcoin Bandits" committed 5 robberies at gunpoint (original link) | | November 4, 2017 | Unidentified | New York, New York, United States | Man robbed of $1.8M of ETH (original link) | | November 15, 2017 | Unidentified | Istanbul, Turkey | Gang stole $2.83M in BTC from businessman (original link) | | December, 2017 | Unidentified | Reykjavik, Iceland | 600 Bitcoin ASICs stolen (original link) and Follow-up Story (original link) | | December 26, 2017 | Pavel Lerner | Kyiv, Ukraine | Bitcoin exchange owner kidnapped & ransomed (original link) | | ?, 2018 | "T.W." | Los Angeles, California, United States | Home invasion by FBI impersonator who demanded laptop passwords to access cryptocurrency. (original link) | | January 3, 2018 | "Dallas" | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States | Convicted felon accused of firing gun inside downtown Milwaukee condo during Bitcoin sale (original link) | | January 14, 2018 | Pavel Nyashin | Leningrad Oblast, Russia | Blogger Who Boasted About Crypto Wealth Beaten and Robbed For $425k (original link) | | January 15, 2018 | Maxsim Latsoka & Anna Nikurina | Phuket, Thailand | Russian gang steals 100,000 Euros in BTC from young Russian couple (original link) | | January 18, 2018 | \____ Lee | North Point, Hong Kong | Bitcoin trader lured to bogus meeting and robbed of HK$1.4M (original link) | | January 23, 2018 | Canadian Bitcoins | Ottawa, Canada | Failed armed robbery attempt of Canadian bitcoin exchange (original link) | | January 27, 2018 | Danny Aston & Amy Jay | Moulsford, Oxfordshire, England | Armed home invasion of Bitcoin trading firm owner (original link) | | January 29, 2018 | Unidentified | Cumming, Georgia, United States | Five men arrested for planning armed home invasion of bitcoin owner (original link) | | January 2018 | Unidentified | Odessa, Ukraine | Several men pose as bitcoin sellers, beat and rob buyer of 1.5 Million UAH ($57,000 USD (original link) | | February 9, 2018 | Sailesh Bhatt | Amreli, India | Police Officers Beat, Extorted 200 BTC from Businessman (original link) | | February 21, 2018 | \____ Tai | Taichung, Taiwan | Four men assault bitcoin seller & transfer 18 BTC (original link) | | February 19, 2018 | Unidentified | Moscow, Russia | Crypto investor has face mutilated, robbed of $1M in BTC (original link) | | February 23, 2018 | Yury Mayorov | Moscow, Russia | Crypto Developer Beaten, Robbed Of 300 BTC (original link) | | March 2018 | Undisclosed woman | Killingly, Connecticut, United States | 2 women invaded home of another woman who had opened a "Bitcoin account" in the name of one of the attackers and used it to steal her money. (original link) | | March 2018| Unidentified Miner | Kyiv, Ukraine | Miner kidnapped, extorted for $50,000. Kidnappers caught 8 months later. (original link) | | March 22, 2018 | Multiple gas stati…