A UK-based crypto trader who posts under the handle "realist" says he was tied up, threatened with three knives and robbed of close to $800,000 in his own home during the night of 12 to 13 October 2026. The account posted on X at around 3:10am Paris time, with a second message following roughly 15 minutes later.
"If you live in the UK and do crypto, get the fuck out. Just got my house invaded, taped up, held at knife point and robbed for $800k. I'm in so much shock I don't know what the fuck to do, fuck this country. No, this is not satire, I fucking wish it was. Wallet with stolen funds..." the first post read.
A second message, calmer in tone, repeated the account: "If you live in the UK and invest in cryptocurrencies, flee! My house was just robbed: they taped everything up, threatened me with a knife and stole $800,000 from me. I'm so shocked I don't know what to do anymore. This country is a real pain. No, this isn't a joke, I wish it were."
According to the trader, roughly $40,000 was taken from his main wallets and a further $720,000 from a Ledger hardware device. The attackers also made off with a Rolex watch and smashed his phone before leaving. He reported only minor injuries, describing "a few bruises". Police were on site and the property was treated as a crime scene. No UK force had issued a public statement on the case at the time of writing, and the city and identity of the victim have not been disclosed.
"You always hear about these stories, but you never think it's going to happen to you," the trader wrote.
He later published a Solana wallet address he said had received the stolen funds. Solscan subsequently relabelled the address "Fake_Phishing4516", flagging it with a phishing and home-jacking warning. Around 3:20am Paris time, 346 SOL — split across two transactions of 20 and 326 SOL, worth roughly $37,000 at the time — moved out of the flagged wallet.
Part of a wider pattern
The industry has taken to calling this category of crime a "wrench attack", a term borrowed from an xkcd webcomic published in February 2009 that illustrated how a $5 wrench can defeat strong cryptography faster than any hack.
The case echoes an attack in Solihull, West Midlands, on 13 December 2025, when three men in their twenties, directed remotely by a fourth accomplice over video call, threatened a pregnant woman with a knife during a home invasion targeting a couple's crypto holdings. Crimestoppers has offered up to £10,000 for information leading to a conviction, but West Midlands Police have made no arrests.
Tracking firm Gart.io has logged 27 crypto-related physical attacks in the UK so far in 2026. Globally, the Jameson Lopp registry counted around 70 such attacks in 2025, up from 41 in 2024 and well above the previous record of 36 set in 2021.
France has recorded a particularly high rate of such crimes. The French Ministry of the Interior logged 90 crypto-related cases between 1 January and mid-August 2026, roughly one every two and a half days. Prosecutors' office Pnaco reported 88 indictments in the spring, including more than ten minors, and counts 135 kidnapping or confinement cases linked to crypto in the country since 2023.
No arrests had been announced in connection with the realist case as of publication.
