Severed Fingers and Wrench Attacks: A New Era in Crypto Crime

This podcast episode of "The Journal" discusses the rise of "wrench attacks," a form of crypto crime where individuals are physically threatened or attacked to gain access to their cryptocurrency holdings. The hosts, Annie Minoff and Sam Schechner, detail several cases, including an attempted kidnapping in Paris, the kidnapping and torture of a Ledger co-founder who had his finger cut off, and other incidents targeting crypto influencers and entrepreneurs. They explore the reasons behind the increase in these attacks, such as the rising value of crypto and the increasing difficulty of online crypto theft. The conversation also touches on the duality of crypto, highlighting its potential for both facilitating and combating crime due to the public nature of transactions, and the podcast further discusses data breaches that expose crypto holders' personal information, making them targets for violence.