I have noticed a really concerning trend emerging in California right now. Cryptocurrency holders are increasingly targeted by extremely violent attacks where criminals use brute force to access wallets. We're talking about wrench attacks, literally.

The modus operandi is particularly insidious. The assailants pose as delivery people—pizza, DoorDash, whatever—knock on the door, and strike once they've identified their target. This has happened in San Francisco, Sunnyvale, San Jose, and Los Angeles. An incident in San Francisco was devastating: a victim lost $13 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum after being forced to give access to their wallet by attackers disguised as pizza delivery people.

What makes this even more worrying is that there are signs of a larger organization behind these attacks. Investigators suspect that criminals are using delivery platform data to identify and target crypto holders. In Sunnyvale, a suspect was arrested after attempting a fake DoorDash delivery. In Los Angeles, other attackers physically threatened a victim to access their cryptocurrencies. Arrests have been made, but clearly there’s something more structured going on.

The problem isn’t isolated to California. A 2025 CertiK report shows that wrench attacks have become a global issue. Europe accounts for over 40% of reported incidents. The financial losses related to these attacks have skyrocketed exponentially, highlighting how serious this has become.

Honestly, it makes me think about physical security as much as digital security. You can have the best cold wallet in the world, but if someone forces you to unlock it, it’s useless. The irreversible nature of cryptocurrency transactions makes them particularly vulnerable to this kind of crime. In my opinion, this is something everyone holding significant amounts of crypto should take seriously now.