Crypto Users Face Home Invasions as Physical Attacks Double
The term “crypto crime” might call up images of fraud or cyberthefts.
But increasingly, that phrase is taking on a more sinister connotation, with the number of physical attacks on cryptocurrency investors, some of which involve violent home invasions, nearly doubling year over year in 2025, Bloomberg News reported Friday (Jan. 2).
While media coverage of the attacks tends to focus on wealthier targets like crypto execs or TikTok influencers, the report said an investigation into one prolific heist crew finds that victims now include children as well as blue collar workers like teachers and firemen.
There have been 215 documented cases of physical crypto attacks worldwide, the report added. However, security consultant Jameson Lopp told Bloomberg that this figure is likely low, as many victims do not report the crimes, fearing that they’ll open themselves up to repeated thefts.
That’s what happened to Julia Goodwin, a Florida woman at the center of the Bloomberg report. She was the victim of a targeted hack in 2021 that cost her 90% of their savings. Then, she and her husband were subjected to a home invasion, held at gunpoint by a crew of thieves who wanted access to the remainder of her crypto. (The theft was halted when her husband managed to hit the panic button on their home’s security system, the report added).
The findings from Bloomberg’s investigation follow a year in which crypto thefts reached $3.4 billion. That’s according to a report last month by blockchain data platform Chainalysis, which noted that nearly half of that total, $1.5 billion, stemmed from a single incident, the historic February compromise of the Bybit crypto exchange.
In related news, PYMNTS wrote last week about enforcement efforts by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which in 2025 brought more than 30 crypto-related enforcement actions, leading to $2.6 billion in penalties and restitution, the highest total ever for the industry. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC) generated more than $17 billion in monetary relief, with digital asset cases accounting for almost half of its enforcement docket.
“From the point of view of compliant cryptocurrency firms, the year’s worth of enforcement actions and criminal cases signal the SEC and CFTC’s increasing emphasis on clear-cut fraud and criminality, rather than debates over whether digital assets deserve security or commodity designations,” PYMNTS wrote.
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