String of kidnappings raises questions about traceability of cryptocurrencies

A series of recent high-profile kidnapping cases in Europe and the United States has renewed scrutiny of cryptocurrencies and their traceability, following reports that alleged ransom notes in several incidents demanded payment in bitcoin.

In recent months, France has seen multiple kidnappings involving individuals connected to cryptocurrency businesses, with ransom demands reportedly tied to digital assets. Attention has also turned to an ongoing case in the United States involving the elderly mother of a well-known television host, who was taken from her home, prompting questions about how easily bitcoin transactions can be tracked.

Last week in France, a 35-year-old magistrate and her elderly mother were abducted from their home. The magistrate’s partner later received a photograph of the two women accompanied by a ransom demand seeking cryptocurrency payment.

The partner is associated with a startup engaged in crypto-related activities, a connection experts say may have motivated the crime. The two women were held for about 30 hours in a garage in the Drôme region of southern France before managing to escape.

Bitcoin’s association with criminal activity dates back in part to the 2013 shutdown of the Silk Road online marketplace, where the cryptocurrency was used to purchase illegal drugs and other contraband. However, industry growth and expanded regulatory oversight in the years since have made illicit use more difficult, analysts say.

Some people believe bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are untraceable and therefore well suited for ransom payments, but experts argue that this assumption is incorrect.

"Every single bitcoin transaction is recorded on a public ledger called the blockchain, so when it comes to tracing transactions, following the money, you have a perfect record with bitcoin," Perianne Boring, founder and chair of the Digital Chamber, told FOX Business, which advocates for digital assets and blockchain technologies.

"The blockchain is a public ledger that is free for anyone to audit, so anyone can look up a specific bitcoin wallet address and see every transaction that's come in and out from the very beginning," she said.

"So, there's no way to hide those tracks. This is actually an incredibly powerful tool for law enforcement. In fact, it's a way better tool for law enforcement than it is for criminals, which is why we really don't see a lot of criminal activity with bitcoin anymore now that the industry has matured," Boring added.

Western Europe has experienced several attacks targeting individuals linked to the crypto industry. In January 2025, David Balland, co-founder of crypto wallet firm Ledger, was kidnapped along with his wife from their home in central France. Before the couple was freed, the attackers sent a video of Balland’s severed finger to his business partner, Eric Larchevêque, along with a ransom demand.

A month earlier in Belgium, the wife of crypto investor and influencer Stéphane Winkel was abducted from the couple’s home but managed to escape after a car accident interrupted the kidnapping.

In the United States, Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of famous television host Savannah Guthrie, was taken from her home earlier this month in what authorities suspect is a kidnapping. She remains missing to this day. Investigators say they have received ransom communications sent to several news outlets but have not confirmed their authenticity, and no proof of life has been publicly verified as of now. In it, demands for payments in bitcoin worth several million dollars have been put forward for the release of the woman, yet US media reports indicate that no such transaction has been made so far.

Criminals sometimes attempt to obscure bitcoin transactions by transferring funds from a self-custodied wallet through multiple intermediary wallets. While such tactics can complicate investigations, experts say the transactions remain traceable. Boring noted that such practices led to the development of so-called mixing services that "receive crypto from multiple parties and mix it together, and then you can pull it out the other end."

She explained that even when criminals "self-custody" bitcoin without relying on a third party such as a bank, converting the cryptocurrency into traditional money presents challenges.

"If a ransom was paid to a bitcoin wallet and the criminal has control of that money, that's totally possible. But at some point they're going to have to transfer that money into U.S. dollars or to yen or to euros or whatever currency they want so they can use the money," she said.

"The companies that provide that money exchange service are all regulated businesses globally… you have to use a regulated financial institution like Coinbase to do that, and at that point, you're at a [know your customer] entity so we would know the identity of the person who's trying to exchange the bitcoin that's linked to the ransom payment," Boring said.

According to Boring, law enforcement agencies have become highly sophisticated in tracking blockchain transactions. She pointed to compliance and monitoring software developed within the crypto industry and used by both firms and investigators.

She added that the US Justice Department has seized significant amounts of cryptocurrency in criminal cases, saying that "law enforcement has really done a very good job of helping police criminals that are abusing this technology for nefarious purposes and keeping this ecosystem safe."

By Nazrin Sadigova