Bitcoin News
By Julie Binoche
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The Wrench Attack Surge Behind This Case. What happened in Atizapán de Zaragoza isn't isolated.
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Russia, France, Mexico: A Global Pattern. The geography keeps expanding. In October 2025, attackers in Russia kidnapped convicted crypto…
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Two men are set to appear in a Mexican court Wednesday, charged with killing four people over a crypto wallet they thought held millions in Bitcoin.
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The suspects — identified only as Diego Sebastián and Gerardo — were arrested after the Attorney General's Office of the State of Mexico, known as the FGJEM, linked them to…
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No additional comments from authorities have come out since the arrests.
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What happened in Atizapán de Zaragoza isn't isolated. It's part of a rising wave of what security researchers call "wrench attacks" — basically, criminals who skip the hacking…
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Security firm CertiK tracked 52 of these attacks globally in just the first half of 2026. That's a 33.3% jump from the same period the year before.
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Pull back further and the picture gets worse. CertiK's full-year 2025 data counted 72 verified wrench attacks worldwide, up 75% from prior levels.
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Related: Kaspa Surges 12% as Altcoin Rotation Gains Momentum Amid Trader Interest
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The geography keeps expanding. In October 2025, attackers in Russia kidnapped convicted crypto fraudster Roman Novak and his wife, forced them to hand over wallet access, and…
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And it's probably not slowing down. Crypto wealth is increasingly visible — on social media, in public blockchain records, in news coverage of big gains.
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The Mexican case is drawing extra attention partly because of who Meléndez was. A working musician in a known band, not a crypto whale with a public profile.
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Diego Sebastián and Gerardo's upcoming hearing will determine if prosecutors have enough to push toward a full trial. The charges are serious.
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Read also: Fidelity and BlackRock Recommend Limited Bitcoin Exposure in Retirement Portfolios
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The crypto community has been rattled by the pattern. Owning significant digital assets used to feel like a purely technical security problem — cold wallets, hardware devices,…
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