Crypto investor beaten in home invasion as 'wrench attacks' surge globally

A man sat in his Solihull home in December, watching the door burst open. Gloved hands. Balaclavas. Three intruders forced their way inside and the assault began—hammers striking his face, head, and ribs for forty-five minutes while his wife, seven months pregnant, was pinned to the sofa by one of the attackers, a pillow pressed over her face until she screamed that she couldn't breathe.

The couple, who asked to remain anonymous, had no idea what the men wanted until one demanded the man's phone. The attackers appeared to know he owned cryptocurrency but didn't know how to access it themselves. Instead, they held the phone up to a live video call. On the other end, a voice gave instructions: show him the apps, find the wallets, identify the money. When the caller spotted a substantial crypto holding, the threats escalated into something darker. The man on the video call told him plainly—transfer the money now or they would stab his wife in the stomach and kill their unborn child. They would kill her.

Under that pressure, the man transferred hundreds of thousands of pounds of cryptocurrency to a digital wallet controlled by the voice on the screen. The attackers also took several luxury Rolex watches. Before they left, the man heard the coordinator tell his accomplices: "You can have 10 grand each but I am taking the rest." A getaway driver was waiting outside. The whole thing was captured on home security footage. Police are still investigating. Crimestoppers is offering a £10,000 reward for information.

What happened in that Solihull home is not an isolated incident. Researchers at Chainalysis, a firm that tracks cryptocurrency crime, have documented a sharp rise in what the security world calls "wrench attacks"—violent robberies targeting people who hold digital assets. The name comes from the tool, though in this case it was hammers. The method is straightforward: force your way in, threaten violence, demand access to the wallet, and take what's there. Unlike money in a bank account, cryptocurrency stored in a personal digital wallet can be transferred instantly and irreversibly. Once it's gone, recovering it is nearly impossible. For criminals, that combination of speed, anonymity, and finality makes crypto holders attractive targets.

The scale is growing. Chainalysis found that $30 million—roughly £22.6 million—had been stolen in violent crypto robberies in the first six months of 2026 alone. If the pace continues, this year will be the worst on record for such attacks. Home invasions are rising too. The United States, Brazil, and Thailand have seen significant numbers of these crimes, but France has been hit hardest. A data breach at a French tax office apparently exposed the identities of wealthy crypto holders, turning them into marked targets.

The man in Solihull, who the BBC is calling James, had become a crypto investor in 2020. He made enough money to quit his job in 2023 and trade full time. The attack cost him everything. He has little hope of recovering the stolen funds and is now looking to return to traditional employment. His wife, in her early thirties, was expecting their third child at the time of the attack. She feared the stress would cause her to lose the baby. It didn't—the child was born at full term—but the fear itself was real and lasting. Both described the experience as horrific.

Crypto security experts point to a fundamental vulnerability. Traditional wealth is protected by institutional gatekeepers—bank vaults, armored cars, regulatory oversight. Cryptocurrency, especially when held in self-custody wallets, often sits in comparatively low-security setups with no institutional protection standing between the owner and a thief. The owner is the gatekeeper, which means the owner is also the only thing standing between the attacker and the money.

Police have not yet identified the three intruders, all believed to be in their late teens or early twenties. One was a Black male with a scar under his left eyebrow. The driver who waited outside without a face covering remains unidentified. The man on the video call, the coordinator who gave the orders and took the bulk of the stolen funds, is still unknown. Alan Edwards from Crimestoppers said the attackers are clearly part of an organized crime operation. He appealed for information, noting that people might be afraid to come forward but that Crimestoppers operates independently of police and keeps sources completely anonymous. James said he has little expectation of recovering his money, but he wants those responsible caught. More than that, he wants people to know what happened to him was real, that these risks are not theoretical, and that they can happen to anyone holding significant crypto assets.