In both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, this weekend’s story shows that cryptocurrency executives and other investors with substantial wealth from Crypto Holdings are getting more serious about personal safety.
Cryptocurrencies have always created their own security risks, but the increasing value of Bitcoin appears to be increasing the threat of violent acceleration. There also appears to be new concerns after a recent Coinbase violation has made its customers’ personal information public. (Coinbase said the violations have affected less than 1% of its customers.)
For example, three masked men recently tried to acquiesce the daughter and granddaughter of the CEO of Cryptocurrency Company Paymium in France, but were kicked out by their family neighbors.
Jethro Pijlman, who works at Infinite Risks International, an Amsterdam-based security and intelligence company, told Bloomberg that his team is seeing “more aggressive requests from more inquiries, longer-term clients and crypto investors who don’t want to be careless.”
Meanwhile, Coinbase revealed in a regulatory filing that it spent $6.2 million on personal security costs for CEO Brian Armstrong last year.