7 Ways to Protect Yourself From Violent Crypto Attacks (Without a Shotgun)

Summary

The "$5 wrench attack" concept highlights a growing trend in real-life cryptocurrency thefts, where criminals resort to violence instead of hacking. Recent incidents include the abduction of Festo Ivaibi in Uganda for $500,000 in crypto and multiple kidnappings in France, including a ransom demand of €5–7 million. In the U.S., three teenagers kidnapped a Las Vegas man for $4 million in digital assets. As Bitcoin prices rise, security measures are crucial. Recommended strategies include multisig wallets requiring multiple keys, Shamir's Secret Sharing for distributing recovery seeds, duress wallets with decoy balances, privacy tools like Monero, remote wipe features for hardware wallets, air-gapped wallets for offline transactions, and wearable panic buttons for emergency alerts. Each method has potential downsides, emphasizing the need for comprehensive security planning.