Russian authorities have arrested a man who reportedly tried to rob a cryptocurrency exchange by threatening its staff with smoke and airsoft grenades. The attack comes amid rising numbers of criminal cases targeting crypto holdings and their owners, including through kidnappings and killings.
The crypto robber, a resident of Russia’s Leningrad Region, was been arrested in St. Petersburg after attempting to rob the exchange office at an apartment hotel. Local police said the attack took place late on Saturday, in the building located on Khersonskaya Street of the country’s second-largest city.
Russian authorities arrest crypto criminal
The crypto robbery was prevented by Russian police officers who arrived at the scene after receiving a report about a noisy conflict that evening. The 21-year-old attacker used a strikeball and smoke grenades, the regional department of the interior ministry detailed in a press release, quoted by Fontanka.ru, Gazeta.ru, and other Russian media on Sunday.
The man entered the office of the exchange service, detonated two of the airsoft grenades, and ignited the smoke bomb. He then demanded that the employees of the crypto trading firm transfer its digital assets to a wallet he provided. The failed robber was apprehended with the assistance of servicemen from Russia’s National Guard, who came to the aid of the police officers.
Bomb disposal specialists who inspected the area confirmed that the devices used in the attack were, in fact, airsoft replicas that create a lot of noise and smoke without causing serious damage. Two more were seized from the perpetrator. Russian authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the attempted robbery, and a decision on whether the man should remain in pretrial detention is under consideration.
Similar cases where criminals try to forcefully take control of victims’ cryptocurrency have been on the rise over the past months. Russian crypto owners are increasingly facing hybrid attacks, where wallet hacks are accompanied by theft and threats of physical violence, the “Delovoy Peterburg” publication noted in a recent report, highlighting a surge in kidnappings.
Perhaps the most remarkable example of this trend lately was the kidnapping of a Russian crypto businessman and alleged scammer last October. The kidnappers believed he owned a fortune in digital assets when they kidnapped him. However, they ended up torturing Novak and his wife, murdering and dumping their corpse in the long run.
