Physical attacks on cryptocurrency holders surged 75% in 2025. That’s not a projection — it’s CertiK’s confirmed figure: 72 documented incidents, $41 million in known losses. And 2026 is on track to exceed it.
On May 21, masked attackers targeted the wife of Sébastien Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox, at her home near Paris. One suspect posed as a delivery worker to gain entry at the gate. Five others rushed the courtyard and attempted to force her into a waiting vehicle. Neighbours intervened. Two suspects — both born in 2009 and 2010 — were arrested nearby with a fake handgun, zip-tie restraints, and balaclavas.
France alone has recorded 41 crypto-linked kidnappings or attempted abductions in 2026. The pattern is systematic. Criminals don’t need to hack your wallet. They need to get through your front door.
Dubai’s crypto community is watching. Many of them are asking the right question for the first time: what does my physical security actually look like?
Why Crypto Holders Are High-Value Targets
The core problem is transparency. Blockchain’s defining feature — public, verifiable transactions — is also an intelligence tool for criminals. Anyone with a blockchain explorer and your wallet address can estimate your holdings, track inflows, and time an approach around major events: a token launch, a conference, a public panel appearance.
Add to that the fact that crypto wealth is largely uninsured, transfers are irreversible, and many holders operate with minimal institutional protection. Compared to a bank CEO with a corporate security detail, a crypto founder with $30 million in liquid holdings and a public Twitter profile is a significantly easier target.
Jameson Lopp of Casa has tracked a threefold increase in wrench attacks between 2023 and 2025. The term refers to coercive attacks where physical force — or the credible threat of it — is used to extract wallet credentials. No exploits. No phishing. Just leverage.
The Dubai Exposure Profile
Dubai has become the global crypto hub by design. The VARA regulatory framework, zero capital gains tax, and concentration of UHNWI have drawn founders, investors, fund managers, and exchange executives in significant numbers. That concentration is also a concentration of targets.
The threat profile here differs from Paris or Las Vegas. UAE law enforcement response times and SIRA-licensed private security infrastructure are both strong. But several structural risks remain:
Public crypto identity. If you’re attending TOKEN2049, GITEX, or Dubai Blockchain Summit, your presence and approximate net worth are publicly broadcast. Criminals plan months in advance.
Residential accessibility. Villa communities in Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills, and Arabian Ranches offer lifestyle and privacy — but many lack layered perimeter controls. A single gate with a domestic worker on the intercom is not a security plan.
Travel patterns. Airport transfers, marina berths, and regular movement between residences and offices create predictable exposure windows. Most crypto holders in Dubai have no counter-surveillance protocol.
Family exposure. Targets increasingly include spouses, children, and parents. In the Borget case, the primary target was his wife. Protective intelligence needs to cover the whole household.
What Adequate Protection Looks Like in 2026
At Almas Aman, we’ve seen a sharp increase in enquiries from crypto principals since Q1 2025. The requests are consistent: I thought I was low profile. I need to understand my actual exposure.
Here is what a credible physical security posture requires for crypto holders operating in Dubai at the eight-figure level and above.
1. A threat assessment before a security plan
Most providers sell close protection without understanding the client’s actual threat surface. A proper threat assessment maps your digital footprint, identifies information leakage (wallet addresses, public transactions, social media), evaluates your residential and travel security, and produces a written risk profile. That document drives everything else.
2. Residential security hardening
The Borget attack succeeded at the perimeter because the entry process was predictable and easily exploited. Residential security for high-net-worth principals requires layered access control: intercom verification protocols, secondary gate controls, CCTV with remote monitoring capability, and domestic staff security awareness training. An untrained household worker is the most common attack vector.
3. Secure transport and route intelligence
Static protection at a residence is necessary but insufficient. Most attacks happen in transit — on the way to a vehicle, in a car park, at a marina, near a school run. Protective drivers with counter-surveillance training, route variation protocols, and clear escalation procedures are not optional at this level.
4. Close protection personnel — when and why
Not every principal needs a full close protection officer on permanent assignment. Some require a protection detail only during high-exposure periods: conferences, travel to high-risk jurisdictions, after a major public transaction. A risk-calibrated approach means you’re not paying for capability you don’t currently need — but you have it deployed when you do.
5. Digital OPSEC
Physical security and digital security are not separate disciplines. Wallet address hygiene, reducing your on-chain footprint’s link to your identity, limiting public transaction announcements, and auditing your social media presence for location and wealth signals are all within scope of a comprehensive security review.
The Coinbase Benchmark
In 2025, Coinbase spent $7.6 million on personal security for CEO Brian Armstrong — a 20% increase over the prior year. That figure reflects the board’s assessment of the threat environment, not paranoia. Armstrong’s public profile is high, but his security expenditure as a percentage of assets under management or personal wealth is modest. The math for crypto founders looks similar.
Institutional crypto companies are also hardening conference security. At Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas, high-profile speakers moved through the venue with personal bodyguards. Paris Blockchain Week used police motorcade escorts to a VIP dinner. Organizers doubled general security. These are not theatrical gestures — they reflect an accurate read of the threat environment.
The Delivery Worker at the Gate
One detail from the Borget attack deserves emphasis: entry was gained by someone posing as a delivery worker. In an era of daily e-commerce deliveries and food apps, this is one of the most common social engineering vectors for residential intrusion. It requires no technical expertise. It exploits normalised behaviour.
Training domestic staff to verify delivery personnel independently — without opening gates — is a basic countermeasure. So is having a camera on the delivery interaction before the gate is opened. Neither requires a significant investment. Both require a security-aware household culture that most residences simply don’t have.
What Dubai’s Crypto Community Should Do Now
If you hold significant crypto and live or regularly operate in Dubai, here is the immediate action list:
Audit your footprint. Search your wallet addresses. Review what your public social media reveals about your location, schedule, and lifestyle. Identify the gaps in your current residential access controls.
Assess your staff. Domestic workers, drivers, and household assistants are the most common entry point for social engineering. Brief them on verification procedures.
Review your transit exposure. If you’re using a rideshare app from your home address, you’re broadcasting your location to an unvetted driver. If you park your vehicle in the same spot daily, you’re creating a pattern.
Get a professional threat assessment. It takes half a day. It produces a written picture of your actual risk. It tells you what you need and what you don’t.
Almas Aman provides threat assessments, residential security consultations, close protection services, and executive protection packages tailored to crypto founders, fund managers, and HNWIs operating in Dubai and across the Gulf. If the Borget case prompted you to think seriously about your own exposure, that instinct is correct.
Contact Almas Aman to arrange a confidential consultation.