Key Insights:
- Three masked men attempted a home invasion on February 12, targeting the head of Binance France in Val-de-Marne. They forced entry into the wrong apartment before fleeing with two mobile phones.
- Binance news confirmed that one employee faced a home invasion, with three suspects arrested in Lyon the same day.
- France recorded 19 verified crypto-linked physical attacks in 2025, the highest count globally, according to CertiK’s Wrench Attack Dataset.
Binance news was shaken on February 12, when French local media reported that three masked assailants targeted a Binance France executive in a failed home invasion attempt in the Paris region.
The attackers first broke into the wrong apartment while searching for their intended victim before fleeing with two mobile phones. French police arrested three suspects in Lyon later that day.
Binance confirmed that one of its employees was the victim of a home invasion. The victim has cooperated with local police in an ongoing investigation. French outlet RTL identified David Prinçay, President of Binance France, as the intended target. Prinçay posted publicly afterward, confirming he and his family remained safe.
The incident marked the latest in a concentrated wave of physical attacks targeting crypto executives and their families across France. CertiK’s 2025 Skynet Wrench Attacks Report documented 72 verified incidents globally, with France recording 19 cases, more than any other country.
Binance News: France Emerges as Global Hotspot for Crypto Attack Incidents
France accounted for 19 of the 72 verified wrench attacks worldwide in 2025. It surpassed the United States’ eight incidents.
Europe accounted for 40.3% of global attacks, with 29 verified cases, up from 22% in 2024. Confirmed losses across all incidents exceeded $40.9 million, though CertiK noted significant underreporting.
A wrench attack is physical coercion used to force victims to surrender private keys, passwords, or to authorize cryptocurrency transfers.
The term gained prominence through an xkcd comic depicting a “$5 wrench” as the simplest method to bypass cryptographic security. CertiK’s report framed such attacks as targeting the “human endpoint” rather than technical vulnerabilities.
The Binance France case followed a pattern of high-profile incidents across the country.
In January 2025, attackers kidnapped a Ledger co-founder and demanded ransom in cryptocurrency. Multiple attempted attacks targeted French crypto executives’ family members throughout the year.
France’s interior minister convened crypto industry professionals in May 2025 after the string of kidnappings and attempted abductions.
Reuters reported that executives are seeking enhanced protection and that private security firms are experiencing increased demand. Officials promised prioritized police support for the sector.
Organized Networks Drive Crypto Attack Escalation
CertiK’s research identified organized, transnational networks using OSINT-driven surveillance to target industry executives, founders, and family members.
Le Monde reported a specialized kidnapping network coordinating crypto-ransom operations across borders with leadership abroad.
The targeting of Binance France executives demonstrated the attackers’ sophistication in identifying high-value targets using publicly available information.
CertiK described modern wrench-attack operations as methodical rather than opportunistic, with criminals conducting surveillance and selecting targets based on perceived cryptocurrency holdings.
France established a national anti-organized crime prosecutor in January 2026, which immediately took on multiple crypto-linked kidnapping and extortion cases.
Le Parisien reported the new office, Pnaco, treated the phenomenon as sustained rather than isolated.
The concentration of incidents in France created a copycat risk and established an operational playbook for criminals. Security researchers noted that each publicized attack potentially encouraged similar attempts by demonstrating the tactic’s viability.
Binance News Highlights How Physical Security Becomes Core Infrastructure Risk
The Binance news highlighted a fundamental shift in cryptocurrency security priorities.
Cold storage and strong cryptography protect against remote compromise but offer no defense against physical coercion. Industry conversations shifted toward layered defenses combining key management with personal security and operational privacy.
CertiK characterized wrench attacks as a structural threat rather than a tail risk. The 75% year-over-year increase in verified incidents supported treating physical violence as baseline market infrastructure risk alongside cyber threats and fraud. Executives faced difficult tradeoffs between public visibility and personal safety.
Crypto Security Risks Intensify in France’s Regulatory Spotlight
Reuters reported crypto leaders considering bodyguards and reduced public exposure. The dynamic created talent-location concerns as France simultaneously served as a prominent European crypto hub and the most frequently cited country in violence datasets.
France’s response provided a test case for public policy addressing crypto-linked violence. The government explicitly engaged with the sector through ministerial meetings. It also introduced a centralized prosecutorial focus. These steps signaled recognition of crypto-targeted coercion as a dedicated public-safety problem.
Paymium, a French exchange, criticized data-collection requirements such as the “travel rule” following attacks. It suggests that compliance regimes created new exposure surfaces.
While no proven causal mechanism linked specific regulations to targeting, the expansion of KYC requirements, leaked datasets, and routine OSINT made identifying cryptocurrency holders increasingly straightforward.
The industry faced pressure to develop operational practices that balance regulatory compliance with physical security considerations. Identity-data and physical-address linkability emerged as core risk factors in an environment where organized criminals actively exploited publicly available information to select victims.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2026/02/14/binance-news-france-executive-targeted-in-home-invasion-as-crypto-attacks-surge/
