The kidnapping cases of wealthy individuals in the Crypto Assets field have emerged, and the risk chain has extended to off-chain life scenarios.

Beijing Business News (Reporter Liao Meng) - As risk events continue to occur, the crypto assets market is becoming increasingly volatile. On May 18, Bitcoin slightly rebounded after falling below 103,000 USD. As of 20:11 on that day, Bitcoin was reported at 103,830 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 0.8%. Ethereum was reported at 2,501.83 USD, with a 24-hour rise of 0.7%.

On the evening of May 17, the crypto assets market quickly dipped, with Bitcoin falling over 1% at one point, and the daily fluctuation approaching 2000 USD. Among the top-ranked crypto assets by market capitalization, popular crypto assets such as Ethereum and Dogecoin saw significant declines, with Ethereum dropping nearly 5%, SOL and XRP falling over 3% and 4% respectively, while Dogecoin fell over 6%. This triggered over 100,000 liquidations across the network, with a total liquidation amount exceeding 200 million USD.

It is worth mentioning that along with the recent fluctuations in Bitcoin, there has been another kidnapping case involving a wealthy individual in the Crypto Assets sector this year. According to Xinhua News Agency, French crypto asset tycoon Pierre Nouazaa recently stated that his daughter and grandson were nearly kidnapped, while Nouazaa himself operates a crypto asset trading platform. At the beginning of May, a relative of another French crypto asset tycoon was also kidnapped and a huge ransom was demanded.

Beijing Business reporters noted that since the middle of 2024, as the prices of Crypto Assets have risen, the market atmosphere has become fervent, and related criminal activities have also increased. According to reports from multiple media outlets, a series of high-profile kidnapping and home invasion cases have occurred in European and American countries this year, with several victims being wealthy individuals holding substantial assets in the Crypto Assets field. Some opinions suggest that the surge in such cases may be closely related to the decentralized and hard-to-trace characteristics of Crypto Assets.

In the view of Yu Jianing, the co-chairman of the Blockchain Special Committee of the China Communications Industry Association, incidents of kidnapping and violent robbery targeting wealthy individuals in the crypto space differ in their mechanisms from traditional financial crimes. They are more a result of a combination of information leaks, wealth exposure, and a lack of protective awareness, reflecting the vulnerabilities of the younger new rich class under the absence of traditional wealth management systems.

"The cause of this risk does not solely rely on the technical attributes of virtual assets, but is closely related to the structural characteristics of the holder group. Due to the strong liquidity of on-chain assets and the irreversibility of transactions, criminals often believe that personal coercion can quickly obtain transfer control, leading to a high asymmetry between the cost of such attacks and potential gains, which triggers a series of replicable violent chains. The continuous exposure of cases will also enable the entire industry to re-evaluate the boundaries of the concept of security. In the past, security was often viewed as whether on-chain transactions could be tampered with or whether wallets could be hacked, while the real risk chain has extended to off-chain life scenarios and identity information," Yu Jianing further explained.

When discussing the impact of criminal risk events on the trends of Crypto Assets, Yu Jianing pointed out that these events are a physical security risk arising from the direct exposure of private wealth during the industry's growth process. The disturbance to asset prices themselves is limited, and the price fluctuations of virtual assets are still primarily dominated by core variables such as macro liquidity, policy expectations, and institutional allocation behavior.

In terms of other external factors, after the US stock market closed on May 16, Moody's downgraded the US sovereign credit rating from Aaa to Aa1 due to the increase in the proportion of US government debt and interest payments, with all three major international credit rating agencies downgrading the US. Following the news, speculative risk assets such as Crypto Assets also experienced a plunge, with Bitcoin falling from over $104,000 to around $102,600.

Bitcoin, characterized by its "decentralization," has long been recognized as a digital asset distinct from traditional currencies, as well as a new type of asset based on encryption and consensus. With multiple concepts supporting it, the price of Bitcoin has gradually risen amid frequent high volatility, creating a fervent atmosphere in market trading.

Under risk events, how should the market rationally view the characteristics of crypto assets? Yu Jianing believes that the virtual assets represented by Bitcoin possess strong institutional breakthrough and technical originality. Their uniqueness lies in the fact that they are not born within the existing financial order, but rather stem from attempts to reconstruct the traditional currency system, centralized clearing architecture, and asset registration mechanism.

Yujia Ning reminded that it is precisely because of this originality in system and technology that Bitcoin and related virtual assets still represent high-risk investment assets in terms of investment attributes. The fluctuations in asset prices and their speed are significantly different from traditional assets, and the underlying rights mechanisms and technological dependencies are distinctly different from traditional investment assets. The market should avoid misunderstanding virtual assets as merely tools for short-term speculation, while ignoring the deep value of their long-term institutional evolution.

(Source: Beijing Business Daily)

Source: Dongfang Caifu Wang

Author: Beijing Business Daily