Even before Coinbase Global Inc. disclosed that hackers had stolen the home addresses and account balances of its customers, Jethro Pijlman was seeing an uptick in interest from concerned clients with large crypto holdings who were looking for bodyguards and other forms of protection.
Pijlman works for an Amsterdam-based firm that provides physical security and intelligence services to cryptocurrency holders who have become worried about the wave of kidnappings that have hit the industry — the most recent of which occurred last week, when assailants tried to abduct the daughter and grandson of a French cryptocurrency executive.
“We’ve had more inquiries, more long-term clients, and more proactive requests from crypto investors who don’t want to be caught off guard,” said Pijlman, a managing director at Infinite Risks International. “They’re realizing that intelligent security measures are part of the cost of doing business at this level.”
People with crypto wealth face unique physical risks because public blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum allow tokens to be transferred instantly and anonymously. This means that if an individual is coerced into giving up the access credentials to their holdings, their assets can vanish within seconds with little chance of recovery. Conversely in traditional financial services, bank accounts can be frozen or seized by law enforcement, allowing more chances to get back lost money.
The concerns about physical safety have come to the fore after the Coinbase attack because the hackers who penetrated the cryptocurrency exchange gained access to data that could allow them to identify and track down customers with large holdings — a frightening prospect just a few days after the kidnapping attempt in France.
Several victims of the Coinbase breach declined to speak on the record to Bloomberg, citing concerns that their security may be jeopardized by being named in a story.
“Crypto traders are acutely concerned about their privacy during data leaks,” said Ronghui Gu, co-founder of blockchain security firm CertiK and associate professor of computer science at Columbia University. “Cryptocurrency can be transferred with just a private key, and is extremely difficult to recover,” he added. “This makes crypto traders prime targets for criminals.”
The industry’s massive investments in protecting online systems may even be fueling the offline risks. Rapid crypto innovation has meant cracking cyber defences has become so challenging that adversaries are resorting to physical attacks, according to Charles Marino, CEO of the security firm Sentinel, which provides intelligence reports about ongoing threats in the crypto industry.
“Right now, the crypto threat landscape is very high,” he said.
The elevated concerns around the safety of crypto executives and their loved ones are illustrated by the amount of money that Coinbase spends to protect its own chief executive officer, Brian Armstrong.
The company spent $6.2 million in personal security costs for Armstrong last year, according to an April regulatory filing that detailed executive compensation. That’s more than the combined amount that JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Nvidia Corp. spent on their respective CEOs, similar filings showed.
Representatives for Coinbase did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Coinbase has said that the leak affected less than 1% of its monthly transacting users. Yet for months, criminals had access to customer data that included their names, addresses, government-ID imagery, transaction history and account balances. Customer support workers in India were bribed to offer access to the company’s data.
Criminals have already used the information to trick some Coinbase customers into handing over access to their accounts or transferring their tokens. As with data leaks from traditional banks, personal information can be used for online fraud and identity theft. But the physical threats are of particular concern to crypto investors, many of whom have long operated anonymously to avoid threats.
In the attempted kidnapping in Paris last week, criminals targeted family members of the CEO of Paymium, a French crypto exchange. While that attempt was foiled, it was only the latest in a string of similar attacks. David Balland, a co-founder of French crypto wallet startup Ledger SAS, was left with a mutilated hand after he and his partner were kidnapped in January.
The attacks have escalated enough that France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau on Friday promised to establish a priority emergency police number for the industry. Elite French police units will also offer special briefings and security check-ups for crypto executives and their families.
On social media, the kidnappings and recent Coinbase attack have led traders to say they’re avoiding trips to France any time soon. EthCC, an annual crypto conference in Cannes, has increased security measures for this summer’s gathering, according to a spokesperson for the event. This has included coordinating with multiple branches of French law enforcement, special forces and private security firms, they said, rather than just local police as had been done in previous years.
These issues, though, have not just been confined to France. One Bitcoin security expert, Jameson Lopp, keeps a running public database of physical attacks on cryptocurrency holders. It documents more than 20 incidents around the world this year alone.
A number of US firms that work with digital tokens are paying for protection for executives. Circle Internet Group Inc., which declared its intention to go public earlier this year, spent about $800,000 on personal security for CEO Jeremy Allaire in 2024 while Robinhood Markets Inc. spent about $1.6 million on Vlad Tenev, according to company filings.
The amount these companies spend pales in comparison to the costs at some technology giants. Meta Platforms Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet Inc.’s Sundar Pichai racked up $27.2 million and $8.2 million, respectively, in personal security costs, though their businesses are more valuable than any crypto company today.
In addition to bodyguards, Pijlman’s firm, Infinite Risks International, offers armored vehicles, home security assessments and social media monitoring to ensure that clients aren’t revealing information about their physical location.
“It often takes a close call or a story in the news to prompt action, but once they understand the threat, they want to take it seriously,” he said. “People are waking up to the fact that their digital success can create very real-world risks.”
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