A French couple was held hostage by fake police with knives and forced to transfer approximately 1 million USD in BTC

According to Cointelegraph, a French couple in their home in Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt, west of Paris, was invaded by three armed men posing as police officers. They were forced to transfer approximately 900,000 euros (about 1 million dollars) in btc-42">Bitcoin, after which the couple was bound and injured. The assailants then fled in a white van. The case has been transferred to the anti-gang department for investigation by the Versailles prosecutor's office, and there have been no arrests reported so far.

This case is the latest example of "ransom attacks" in the cryptocurrency sector in recent years (where violence or threats are used to force holders to hand over digital assets). According to data from the cybersecurity platform CertiK, such attacks globally increased by 75% to 72 cases in 2025, with France leading the world with 19 cases. Since the beginning of this year, there have been multiple incidents of kidnapping and home invasion targeting cryptocurrency professionals in France.