Warning: This article contains disturbing details.
A businessman was beaten with a hammer by masked men who broke into his home and threatened to kill his pregnant wife unless he transferred hundreds of thousands of pounds in cryptocurrency.
In an interview with BBC, the couple, who wished to remain anonymous, described the attack as "horrifying" and expressed their concern for the safety of the unborn baby.
After the man transferred his cryptocurrency savings, the attacker left in a car driven by a supporting driver.
Crimestoppers has offered a £10,000 reward for this attack, and relevant footage has been captured by home security cameras. The police are investigating the case.
Experts say that this type of violent theft, known as “wrench attack”, is increasingly targeting cryptocurrency investors.
With the rise in the prices of cryptocurrencies, there have been reports of violent robberies related to digital assets in the UK, France, and the United States.
Once the funds are transferred away, it is often extremely difficult to recover them.
The man, identified as “James” by BBC, said that three intruders forcibly broke into his home in Solihull, and then carried out an attack that lasted for 45 minutes.
“The door was pushed open, and I saw a person wearing gloves come in, along with a baroque hat,” he said.
James tried to repel these people, but they hit him in the face, head, and ribs with hammers.
His wife, who was 7 months pregnant, was forced down onto the sofa by one of the criminals.
“He covered her face with a pillow,” James said, “he suffocated her on the sofa. I could hear her screaming, ‘I can’t breathe.’”
At first, the couple had no idea what the criminals wanted, until one of them demanded that James unlock their phone and hand it over.
James said that the attacker seemed to know that he held cryptocurrencies, but knew almost nothing about how to obtain those assets.
On the contrary, they are following the instructions of another person who is connected via a real-time video call.
“I can hear that person inside FaceTime saying, ‘Show me everything on his phone. Let’s see what apps he has installed.’” he said.
When the person on the call identified an encrypted wallet containing a large amount of funds, the threat quickly escalated.
"He was basically saying: 'Listen, if you don't transfer this money to us now, we will stab your wife in the stomach and kill your children. We will kill your wife.'" said James.
His wife also refused to reveal her name. She said that the attack, which occurred in December last year, was "horrifying," and she thought that when James fell to the ground without any response, he must have been killed.
“It’s too terrifying,” she said.
This woman in her early thirties was pregnant with her third child at the time, and she said she was worried that the stress from the attack could lead to a miscarriage. In the end, the baby was born healthy and full-term.
After James transferred their savings—hundreds of thousands of pounds in cryptocurrency—to the digital wallet of the man on the video call, these people left.
They also stole several Rolex luxury watches.
James said that before they left, he heard the man in the video call say to his accomplices, "Each of you can take 10,000 pounds, but the rest is all for me."
The Rise of “wrench attack”
Unlike funds in traditional bank accounts, cryptocurrencies are usually directly controlled by their holders through digital wallets or physical storage devices.
For criminals, the combination of speed, anonymity, and irreversibility makes cryptocurrency holders an attractive target.
Although the vast majority of cryptocurrency thefts occur online, through hacker attacks and fraud, encryption investigators from blockchain analysis company Chainalysis indicate that in recent years, there has been a surge in " wrench attack ".
According to their research, as of June this year, $30 million (22.6 million pounds) has been stolen in violent robberies, which means that 2026 is likely to become the year with the most severe cryptocurrency-related violent attacks on record. The study also found that burglaries have been on the rise this year.
The United States, Brazil, and Thailand are areas with high incidence, but France has so far experienced the largest number of attacks. This is believed to be related to a data breach by tax authorities, which seems to have made it easier to locate wealthy cryptocurrency holders.
Researchers stated in the report: "The physical security measures used to protect traditional assets, such as bank vaults and armored cash transport vehicles, cannot be automatically applied to cryptocurrencies. Holders often store their assets in environments with relatively low security levels, such as self-managed wallets, which can be compromised in the absence of any institutional gatekeepers to protect them."
James said that he started buying cryptocurrencies as an amateur investor in 2020 and earned enough money in 2023 to quit his job and turn to trading full-time.
Now that he has lost everything, he is considering returning to his previous job position.
The police have not yet confirmed the identity of the attacker.
Crimestoppers offers a reward of 10,000 pounds for any clues that could help advance the investigation.
The Alan Edwards of this charitable organization hopes that people may have information regarding the three attackers, the driver who was outside and did not cover their face, or the man on the phone.
"These criminals are obviously very dangerous and belong to some kind of organized crime gang," he said.
"People might be afraid to provide information, but we are independent of the police and will keep any informants completely anonymous."
It is believed that all three attackers are in their late teens or early twenties, and one of them is a black man with a scar below his left eyebrow.
James said that he hardly expects to recover the stolen funds, but he hopes to see that those responsible are brought to justice.
He also hopes that his experience can serve as a warning to others.
“They threatened my wife and child,” he said, “People need to understand that these risks are real.”
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