French Authorities Log 223 Arrests in Crypto Kidnapping and Extortion Cases

There is no directly comparable official figure for 2025 because the ministry began recording events under the current classification on January 1, 2026. That makes claims about the exact year-on-year growth rate difficult, but other datasets independently identify France as the center of this year’s rise in violent crypto crime.

Why Are the Official Numbers Much Higher Than Public Trackers?

Chainalysis counted 30 publicly known violent crypto incidents in France through mid-2026 and warned that the real number was almost certainly higher. Its global data showed more than $30 million successfully stolen through violent crypto attacks during the first half of 2026, compared with a record $58 million for all of 2025.