Crypto elite increasingly worried about their personal safety

Cryptocurrency executives and other investors with significant wealth from crypto holdings are getting more serious about personal security, according to stories this weekend in both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.

While cryptocurrencies have always created unique security risks, it seems there’s a rising threat of violent abduction due to the growing value of Bitcoin, as well as new concerns after a recent Coinbase breach exposed customers’ personal information. (Coinbase said the breach affected less than 1% of its customers.)

For example, three masked men recently attempted to abduct the daughter and granddaughter of the CEO of French currency company Paymium, only to be driven off by the family’s neighbors.

Jethro Pijlman, who works for Amsterdam-based security and intelligence firm Infinite Risks International, told Bloomberg that his team is seeing “more inquiries, more long-term clients, and more proactive requests from crypto investors who don’t want to be caught off guard” and realize that “intelligent security measures are part of the cost of doing business at this level.”

Meanwhile, Coinbase revealed in a regulatory filing that it spent $6.2 million in personal security costs for its CEO Brian Armstrong last year — more than the combined security costs for the CEOs of JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Nvidia.