French Police Expand Crypto Security After 77 Kidnapping Cases Drive New Protection Push

French Minister Seeks to Reassure Industry

French authorities are rolling retired an expanded information inaugural to antagonistic a crisp emergence successful convulsive crimes targeting cryptocurrency professionals. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said constabulary person recorded 77 cases of kidnapping, abduction, extortion oregon attempted kidnapping linked to the crypto assemblage since January.

The fig marks a crisp summation from the 45 incidents reported successful each of 2025. Speaking astatine an lawsuit hosted by the Association of Digital Asset Holders (Adan), Nuñez sought to reassure manufacture members, describing the ministry’s updated strategy arsenic “more ambitious” than erstwhile efforts.

“These are superior matters and your interest is legitimate,” Nuñez said, adding that exigency protocols introduced past twelvemonth person proved effective. As reported by Bitcoin.com News, authorities began providing enhanced information to cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and their families, aiming some to deter attackers and support the sector.

Nuñez said instrumentality enforcement has arrested 200 radical this twelvemonth during oregon up of crypto‑related attacks. He cited a June 26 incidental successful the Somme portion of bluish France, wherever suspects were detained 8 hours aft an onslaught began. He credited the accelerated effect to an exigency hotline activated by the victim.

A full of 724 cryptocurrency professionals are present registered connected the ministry’s contiguous recognition platforms, an 11% summation from past year.

Under the updated framework, authorities program to grow quality sharing to amended way transgression networks, galore of which run extracurricular France. The ministry volition besides enactment with Adan to physique a web of experts linking authorities information officials with private‑sector stakeholders.

The sector’s vulnerability was underscored past twelvemonth by a drawstring of high‑profile attacks that began successful January 2025 and escalated done May successful Paris. The question included the abduction of David Balland, co‑founder of crypto hardware wallet shaper Ledger.

Nuñez said those attacks stopped abruptly aft the June 2025 arrest successful Morocco of a Franco‑Moroccan national suspected of orchestrating the kidnappings.