The term "wrench attack" is about as blunt as it sounds: no phishing links, no leaked private keys — just someone showing up at your door with a wrench or some other tool, forcing you to hand over your wallet. The crypto community has been using this term for a while now to describe physical violence targeting coin holders.
According to The Block, the number of wrench attacks in France is heading toward a record high, with 2026 shaping up to be the worst year on record for violent crimes targeting crypto holders in the country.
What makes things worse is the timing. Around the same period, a tax data leak in France exposed information belonging to nearly 678,000 people. For most people, a tax data leak might just be a privacy concern — but for crypto holders, if asset size or identity gets tied to leaked tax records, it's essentially handing attackers a ready-made target list.
Put these two threads together, and the risk is no longer just about losing money from a hacked wallet — it's a matter of physical safety. The size of your crypto holdings could be exactly what puts you in someone's crosshairs.
For now, that's all the publicly available information. The report doesn't specify how the leak occurred, case details, or any official response — further developments will need to be confirmed with more information.
