Crimestoppers is offering £10,000 reward for information on a robbery in Solihull in which attackers stole a large amount of cryptocurrency after beating a businessman with hammers and threatening to stab his pregnant wife to death.
The incident, which occurred on 13 December of last year, lasted about 45 minutes and saw men in gloves and balaclavas enter the Solihull home, apparently aware that the businessman had large cryptocurrency holdings.
The three intruders spoke to a fourth man via video call, showing the fourth man the contents of the victim’s smartphone and taking instructions from him on how to access the victim’s crypto holdings.
Physical risk
According to dialogue heard by the victim, each of the three intruders were given a £10,000 cut of the stolen funds, while the fourth man took the rest.
The victim had quit his job in 2023 to carry out currency trading full-time, but after losing his savings, said he was returning to his previous job.
The couple, who chose to remain anonymous, said they wanted to publicise the case as a warning of the dangers of such attacks and in an effort to try to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The incident comes amid a rising incidence of “wrench attacks” in which cryptocurrency holders are physically attacked to force them to transfer funds to the attackers.
Data breach
The attacks take advantage of the large amount of control individuals exercise over crypto holdings, by contrast to traditional banking systems, and the rise in value of crypto tokens in recent years.
Some $30 million (£22.7m) was stolen in such attacks this year up to June, putting 2026 on track to be the worst year for “wrench attacks” to date.
The US, Brazil, and Thailand have all seen such incidents, but the largest number has taken place in France after a data breach at cryptocurrency tax filing platform Waltio, which first came to light in December 2025, leaked the personal information on 5,000 French crypto holders.
Last month, attackers tricked online bank Revolut into revealing data on large crypto holders, and demanded a ransom to refrain from revealing the data.