TLDR

• Four armed men broke into a family’s home in Vendin-le-Vieil, France, and stole about €40,000 in cryptocurrency.

• The home invasion lasted roughly two hours, during which the father was beaten until he transferred the funds.

• A fifth person stayed on the phone the whole time, speaking Arabic so the family could not understand the plan.

• France now accounts for about 80% of Europe’s physical crypto attacks, with 77 cases logged in the first half of 2026.

• Police have charged 88 people so far, but investigators still don’t know how the attackers found this specific family.

Four armed men broke into a home in northern France early Sunday morning and stole about €40,000 worth of cryptocurrency. The attack happened in the small town of Vendin-le-Vieil around 4 a.m.

The victims were a 40-year-old IT worker in the crypto field, his 41-year-old partner, and their two children, ages 12 and eight. The men wore black clothing and carried a knife and an iron bar.

They forced their way through the front door and tied up the entire family with black tape. The father was separated from the rest while the mother and children were held under guard in another room.

For close to two hours, the attackers punched and threatened the father. They wanted his account codes and login details so they could move his crypto holdings out of his wallets.

One of the more disturbing details reported by local outlets is that the 12-year-old girl was struck with car keys to wake her up. The violence was used to pressure her father into cooperating faster.

Once the father handed over his credentials, the men completed the transfer of roughly €40,000. As soon as the transaction confirmed on the blockchain, they left the house.

A Coordinated Robbery

The four men inside the house were not working alone. A fifth person stayed on the phone with them for the full two to three hours of the robbery.

Reports say the group spoke Arabic during the call so the trapped family could not follow what was being planned. This points to a group that had a clear plan before they ever entered the home.

Authorities in France have started calling these events “cryptorapts.” Instead of hacking into an account, criminals use force against a person’s family to make them hand over funds willingly.

France Leads Europe in Physical Crypto Attacks

France has become the country with the most physical crypto attacks in Europe. Independent trackers say it accounts for close to 80% of all documented cases on the continent.

The numbers have grown fast. French police recorded 135 crypto-related incidents since 2023, including just 18 in 2024 and 77 in the first half of 2026 alone.

Eighty-eight people have been charged in connection with these cases so far, including some minors. Investigators say the same names keep showing up across different files, which suggests organized networks rather than random local crews.

Two separate teams are now working the case. Local police are handling the physical break-in, while France’s Anti-Cybercrime Office is tracing where the stolen €40,000 went on the blockchain.

The amount stolen in this case is small compared to other recent French crypto ransoms, some of which reached into the millions of euros. The method used, however, matches earlier attacks closely.

Authorities have not released the name of the crypto asset stolen, the wallet it was sent to, or the identities of any suspects. The investigation into how the attackers knew this family held crypto in the first place is still open.

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