French Interior Ministry figures — the official record of declared cases — show that 90 violent attacks on Bitcoin (BTC holders were logged in France over a seven-month period this year.

The tally stands against the bargain that European tax regulation offers crypto investors: verify your identity, report your holdings and stay within the rules, terms that are meant to make them safer. As the ministry's declared-case count indicates, that bargain has carried a measurable cost in France this year. Because the figure comes from the ministry's own records rather than estimates, it offers readers a fixed benchmark for judging how the situation develops.

Transparency rules reshaped the French market

France has progressively formalized its crypto framework. Under the PACTE law of 2019, digital-asset service providers operate under a national registration regime overseen by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the country's market regulator. Since 2020, French taxpayers have also been required to declare accounts, including digital-asset wallets, held with providers established abroad.

At the European level, the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, applicable to crypto-asset service providers from the end of 2024 (December 30), introduced common licensing and conduct rules across the bloc, with customer identity verification at its core. For market participants, that architecture defines which firms count as regulated actors and what records exist when something goes wrong.

Physical coercion bypasses digital security

Security researchers have long warned that compliance systems do not, by themselves, protect individuals from physical coercion — the scenario sometimes called the "$5 wrench attack," in which assailants target holders directly rather than attempting to defeat digital safeguards.

France has confronted that risk at close range. In January 2025, David Balland, co-founder of French hardware wallet maker Ledger, was kidnapped and freed days later in a police operation. In May 2025, an attempted daylight abduction in Paris targeted the daughter and grandson of a French crypto entrepreneur. In both episodes, the targets were individuals connected to the industry rather than the regulated platforms described above. In response, the Interior Ministry opened a confidential registration line allowing crypto professionals to declare their status discreetly to police and request protective measures, an initiative announced by then-Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau. How the ministry's declared-case count moves from here, and how the registration line is used, are the indicators to watch as France's response to the problem takes shape.

This content was first published on COINOTAG: https://en.coinotag.com/france-logs-90-violent-attacks-bitcoin-btc-holders