Gunmen force family in northwest France to send €700,000 crypto

Two hooded gunmen entered a home in Ploudalmézeau, northwest France, on Monday, bound a mother, her two young children and two grandparents and forced the household to transfer roughly €700,000 in cryptocurrency. The three adults were tied and held on the floor for more than three hours while the attackers demanded access to the family’s digital wallets.

The intruders threatened the occupants with a firearm and demanded keys or credentials to the family’s crypto accounts. The mother complied and moved the funds as ordered. The assailants left in a vehicle taken from the property; police found the vehicle abandoned in Brest later that evening. The Rennes gendarmerie research unit opened an investigation. No arrests have been made.

A neighbor intervened during the incident, after which the attackers fled. Investigators are tracing the transfers to determine where the funds moved and whether the theft is connected to other recent crimes that target cryptocurrency holders.

French judicial police have recorded more than 40 kidnappings and abductions linked to cryptocurrency since January, exceeding about 30 cases logged in 2025. Authorities say the incidents include home invasions, impersonation of officials and abductions used to force rapid transfers of digital assets.

Law enforcement faces limits when transfers occur. Cryptocurrency transactions can move quickly and, depending on the blockchain and services used, are difficult to reverse. Investigators increasingly work with exchanges and blockchain analysis firms to trace funds and, where possible, freeze assets after transfers are detected.

Recent cases underscore those challenges. In a late-2023 kidnapping, blockchain investigators and an exchange froze roughly $800,000 after about $2 million had been paid; six suspects were later arrested. In March, a couple in their late 50s on the outskirts of Paris were forced to transfer about €900,000 in bitcoin to attackers who posed as police. In February, suspects searching for a senior executive at a crypto firm fled with two mobile phones and were arrested later the same day following a trace to a train station. Authorities also arrested six suspects in an attempted kidnapping of a magistrate and her mother; captors had demanded a cryptocurrency ransom and threatened physical harm.

The Rennes inquiry into the Ploudalmézeau case will focus on tracking the crypto transfers and identifying links to organized groups that law enforcement says have carried out similar extortion and abduction operations across France.