nirvananimbusa / physical-bitcoin-attacks

A list of known attacks against Bitcoin / crypto asset owning entities that occurred in meatspace.

Known Physical Bitcoin Attacks

A list of known attacks against Bitcoin / crypto asset owning entities that occurred in meatspace. NOTE: this list is not comprehensive; many attacks are not publicly reported.

Readers may be interested in this relevant presentation: "The Hodlguard- a primer on physical security in Bitcoin" and slides.

Date	Victim	Location	Description
December 29, 2014	Hal Finney	Santa Barbara , California	Bitcoin developer SWATted after months of harrassment & extortion
January 3, 2015	Amanda McCollum	Atlanta, Georgia	BTM thieves strike smoke shop, fire gun
January 22, 2015	Martin Wismeijer	Amsterdam, Netherlands	Thieves steal 2 bitcoin ATMs
February, 2015	Dean Katz	New York, New York	Bitcoin trader robbed of $12,000 at gunpoint
May 27, 2015	Dwayne Richards	New York, New York	Firefighter kidnapped, robbed of $1,100, & stabbed by crypto thieves
November 16, 2015	Robert Nederhoed	Delft, Netherlands	Thieves steal bitcoin ATM containing 2,000 EUR
July 11, 2016	Tadas Kasputis	Kaunas, Lithuania	Cryptocurrency executive kidnapped at car wash
July 25, 2016	Steve Manos	West Palm Beach, Florida	Bitcoin trader robbed of $28,000 at gunpoint
August 14, 2016	Multiple	Toronto, Ontario	Police arrest teens in string of bitcoin-related robberies
November 6, 2016	Tivoli Brasserie	Oudenbosch, Netherlands	Dutch Bitcoin ATM Owner Laughs at Thieves Who Took His Machine
February 16, 2017	Josoj	London, England	Description of robbery during Localbitcoins trade with Bitcoins Uncensored interview and the robber's side of the story.
February 26, 2017	Rocelo Lopes' wife	Florianopolis, Brazil	Wife of crypto exchange owner kidnapped and ransomed
March 14, 2017	3 Indian Bitcoin traders	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	3 Emiratis pose as cops, kidnap victims and rob them of 25 BTC
June 17, 2017	Miyuki Noda	Gifu, Japan	Woman strangled, attacker takes 100,000 yen worth of BTC
September 4, 2017	Alexey Sherstne	Kiev, Ukraine	Man tortured for $50k in Bitcoins
October 16, 2017	Jameson Lopp	Durham, North Carolina	Bitcoin developer SWATted & extorted
October, 2017	Multiple	Toulouse, France	4 bitcoin traders robbed at gunpoint
October, 2017	Multiple	Los Angeles, California	"Discount Bitcoin Bandits" committed 5 robberies at gunpoint
November 4, 2017	Unidentified	New York, New York	Man robbed of $1.8M of ETH
November 15, 2017	Unidentified	Istanbul, Turkey	Gang stole $2.83M in BTC from businessman
December, 2017	Unidentified	Reykjavik, Iceland	600 Bitcoin ASICs stolen Follow-up Story
December 26, 2017	Pavel Lerner	Kiev, Ukraine	Bitcoin exchange owner kidnapped & ransomed
January 3, 2018	"Dallas"	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	Convicted felon accused of firing gun inside downtown Milwaukee condo during Bitcoin sale
January 14, 2018	Pavel Nyashin	Leningrad Oblast, Russia	Blogger Who Boasted About Crypto Wealth Beaten and Robbed For $425k
January 15, 2018	Maxsim Latsoka & Anna Nikurina	Phuket, Thailand	Russian gang steals 100,000 Euros in BTC from young Russian couple
January 18, 2018	____ Lee	North Point, Hong Kong	Bitcoin trader lured to bogus meeting and robbed of HK$1.4M
January 23, 2018	Canadian Bitcoins	Ottawa, Canada	Failed armed robbery attempt of Canadian bitcoin exchange
January 27, 2018	Danny Aston & Amy Jay	Moulsford, Oxfordshire, England	Armed home invasion of Bitcoin trading firm owner
January 29, 2018	Unidentified	Cumming, Georgia	Five men arrested for planning armed home invasion of bitcoin owner
January 2018	Unidentified	Odessa, Ukraine	Several men pose as bitcoin sellers, beat and rob buyer of 1.5 Million UAH ($57,000 USD
February 9, 2018	Sailesh Bhatt	Amreli, India	Police Officers Beat, Extorted 200 BTC from Businessman
February 21, 2018	____ Tai	Taichung, Taiwan	Four men assault bitcoin seller & transfer 18 BTC
February 23, 2018	Yury Mayorov	Moscow, Russia	Crypto Developer Beaten, Robbed Of 300 BTC
February 23, 2018	Unidentified	Moscow, Russia	Crypto investor has face mutilated, robbed of $1M in BTC
March 2018	Undisclosed woman	Killingly, Connecticut	2 women invaded home of another woman who had opened a "Bitcoin account" in the name of one of the attackers and used it to steal her money.
March 2018	Unidentified Miner	Kiev, Ukraine	Miner kidnapped, extorted for $50,000. Kidnappers caught 8 months later.
March 22, 2018	Multiple gas stations	Irving & Mesquite, Texas	Robbers douse clerks with pepper spray, steal from Bitcoin ATMs in Irving and Mesquite
April 8, 2018	Pang Joon Hau	Singapore	Man seeking to buy BTC robbed of $365,000
April 11, 2018	Ryan Rice	Miami, Florida	Bitcoin buyer shoots robber in self defense
April 25, 2018	2 unidentified Asian brothers	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Gang of 10 robbed two brothers of AED 7m ($1.9m) in cash who were looking to buy Bitcoin
June 6, 2018	Unidentified 22-year-old	Milan, Italy	Robbers attempt bitcoin purchase with counterfeit money, beat victims and fire gun, take 50,000 euros
June 13, 2018	"Synth"	China	Home invasion of Skycoin architect resulted in theft of 18.88 BTC and 6,466 SKY
June 19, 2018	Unidentified	Wels, Austria	$250,000 in cryptocurrency taken by robbers posing as postmen
July 6, 2018	Austin Nedved	Northborough, Massachussetts	Armed home invasion of Localbitcoins trader
September 7, 2018	Nicholas Truglia	New York, New York	Friends accused of torturing pal to steal his cryptocurrency
October 15, 2018	Heikki Bjørklund Paltto	Oslo, Norway	24 year old man murdered in home after exchanging large sum of BTC
November 16, 2018	Andrew ______	Lanseria, South Africa	Bitcoin trader drugged, beaten, and tortured before transferring BTC to attackers
February 10, 2019	Tjeerd H.	Drouwenerveen, Netherlands	Bitcoin trader tortured with drill
March 12, 2019	Costcutters	Far Cotton, Northampton, England	Bitcoin machine stolen during robbery
May 14, 2019	Undisclosed	Oslo, Norway	Bitcoin millionaire escapes armed home invader by jumping off balcony
June 30, 2019	Luftan Shaikh, Mohammad Shazad, Malang Shah	Jaipur, Rajasthan, India	Criminal Gang Abducts & Tortures Cryptocurrency Traders, Demands 80 BTC Ransom
July 15, 2019	Bitcoin Exchange	Sparkhill, Birhingham, England	Masked raiders hold up Bitcoin Exchange in front of dozens of witnesses
July 26, 2019	Unidentified	Wels, Austria	Man raided in office (en)
August 26, 2019	Abdul Shakoor	Dehradun, India	Kingpin of Kerala bitcoin scam murdered in Dehradun
November 19, 2019	Simply Delicious Food Market	Vernon, British Columbia	Thieves break into BTM
January ?, 2020	Iroro Wisdom Ovie	Abraka, Nigeria	Man shot & killed by home invaders seeking $10,000 in bitcoin
January 8, 2020	Mark Cheng Jin Quan	Bangkok, Thailand	Blockchain advisor kidnapped, held at gunpoint, extorted for $60,000 in bitcoin
January 21, 2020	Mayfair Quick Mart	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	2 men break into BTM, steal cash box
May 19, 2020	Exxon Gas Station	East Lansdowne, Pennsylvania	2 subjects pry open BTM in broad daylight
October 7, 2020	Mike's Produce	Kelowna, BC, Canada	Botched Bitcoin theft destroys deli
October 22, 2020	Undisclosed	Riga, Latvia	Man arrested for planning kidnapping and killing owners of cryptocurrencies
December 24, 2020	Undisclosed	Ternopil, Ukraine	Man kidnapped and tortured for $800k
January 5, 2021	37 year old man,	Chai Wan, Hong Kong	Robbers take US$387,000 in cash, 15BTC from man after in-person trade