A crypto investor in the United Kingdom claims that intruders who broke into his home forced him at knifepoint to transfer approximately $760,000 in total from his hot wallet and assets held on his Ledger device.
According to CoinDesk, the investor, who uses the pseudonym “realist” on X, said the attackers smashed his phone and forced him to send his crypto assets to a specific address. The amounts he shared consist of approximately $40,000 in the hot wallet and $720,000 in the Ledger wallet.
To support his account, the investor shared a Solana wallet address via Solscan. However, police or other authorities have yet to confirm the incident. The alleged method relied on forcing the owner to make a transfer rather than remotely taking control of the device.
Home invasions account for 37% of attacks
Incidents in which crypto holders are forced to surrender their assets through physical violence or threats are known in the industry as “wrench attacks.” Chainalysis estimates that more than $30 million in crypto was stolen in these types of violent attacks in the first half of 2026. Home invasions accounted for 37% of recorded incidents, up from 14% a year earlier.
Security firm CertiK said it identified 52 verified attacks worldwide during the same period, 33 of which took place in France.
Is protecting your private key enough?
Although hardware wallets help protect private keys, being forced to make a transaction under physical threat presents a separate security risk. For this reason, crypto security depends not only on the device and password but also on who knows about an investor’s assets.
Among the measures that stand out in addressing this risk are avoiding publicly sharing asset amounts and transaction activity, and keeping easily accessible funds separate from long-term holdings. However, no technical measure can completely eliminate the risk of physical violence.
Not investment advice.