A London jury has convicted six men over the kidnapping, torture and blackmail of two French cryptocurrency millionaires after a 52-hour ordeal in which the victims were stripped naked, beaten, burned with cigarettes, scalded with boiling water and forced to hand over roughly $30,000 in cryptocurrency while captors demanded five times more.
The convictions come as security firm CertiK reports that Europe has become the global centre of so-called 'wrench attacks', violent assaults and kidnappings targeting cryptocurrency holders, with France accounting for the majority of recorded incidents during the first half of 2026. Researchers say criminals are increasingly bypassing digital security by attacking investors directly.
