A tax worker in Bobigny used inner software program to compile dossiers on cryptocurrency specialists, billionaire Vincent Bolloré, jail guards, and a decide. She handed the data to criminals who paid €800 to assault a jail officer at residence in Montreuil.
Her enchantment was rejected Jan. 6, as reported by native media.
The case issues much less for what occurred than for the way targets had been chosen. The latest vector is not Telegram doxxing or compromised exchanges. It is privileged entry to state identification methods that map names to addresses, telephone numbers, and household constructions with a single question.
France’s Nationwide Police Inspectorate logged 93 investigations in 2024 for violation {of professional} secrecy and 76 for database diversion. The company calls the sale of presidency database lookups through social networks and darkish net an “uberization” of file trafficking.
A separate TF1 investigation uncovered a Snapchat-based service menu: €30 for a automobile registration lookup, €150 for a wanted-persons file examine, and €250 for an unlawful automobile un-immobilization. Financial institution transfers related to at least one suspect ranged from €15 to €5,000.
Crypto’s safety mannequin assumes irreversibility, and self-custody eliminates the chance of intermediaries. Nevertheless, as soon as an attacker obtains a real-world identification, the “crypto half” turns into a coercion drawback moderately than cryptography.
Consider it as most extractable worth in actual life, or IRL MEV. When on-chain, maximal extractable worth comes from seeing transaction movement first. In bodily area, attackers extract worth by first observing the identification graph after which selecting the most cost effective coercion path.
France constructed the template
Le Parisien reported Dec. 18 that assaults on crypto traders have multiplied, prompting the French authorities to subject an August 2025 decree eradicating residence addresses of crypto enterprise leaders from the RCS industrial registry.
The measure protects in opposition to bodily aggression and harassment, although regulation enforcement, customs, and tax administration retain entry.
The RCS beforehand displayed enterprise leaders’ residence addresses on Kbis paperwork, that are publicly accessible company filings. The August decree closed one gap, however tax administration databases stay open to hundreds of civil servants, and oversight depends on post-facto anomaly detection.
Tax methods comprise granular knowledge. Addresses replace with returns. Cellphone numbers seem on correspondence. Household construction reveals via dependent declarations. Capital beneficial properties filings map asset courses to people.
TF1 reported that French tax databases give staff entry to all of this.
The unit economics favor attackers: a lookup prices tens to a whole bunch of euros, and a profitable residence invasion yields at the least 5 – 6 figures.
ENISA tracked 586 incidents affecting EU public administrations in 2024. The menace mannequin is not refined hacking, however insiders with reliable credentials extracting knowledge for secondary markets.
Ghalia C. admitted to passing info to a few males who attacked a jail officer. The €800 fee suggests a service transaction. Her search historical past prolonged to crypto specialists, billionaire Bolloré, well being inspectors, and judges. This means she was promoting entry, not executing a single vendetta.
Crypto holders current an unusually favorable risk-return profile for bodily coercion.
Belongings are self-custodied, so no financial institution freeze or court docket order can reverse a coerced switch. Moreover, victims usually maintain important worth that may be moved immediately. And reporting exposes them to tax scrutiny they could have been avoiding.
The coverage change eradicating enterprise leaders’ addresses from public registries indicators institutional recognition that crypto-related bodily dangers function in a different way.
Banks can freeze accounts. Brokerage transfers may be reversed. Crypto transfers are closing.
That finality shifts the menace panorama from technical safety to identification safety. As soon as attackers remedy the identification drawback, coercion is easy.
The chokepoint moved
If identification knowledge is a scarce useful resource, count on three responses.
First, extra registry confidentiality, with the RCS deal with suppression turning into a template.
Second, hardened controls inside authorities methods. France’s IGPN already tracks database diversion as a definite class.
Third, continued insider-plus-access-for-sale incidents, as unit economics stay favorable.
The Bobigny case highlights a regulatory paradox. European authorities are increasing crypto transparency via necessary KYC, wallet-provider reporting, and DeFi transaction monitoring to fight cash laundering and tax evasion.
These necessities create centralized databases mapping identities to holdings. The extra complete the database, the extra precious it turns into to attackers.
France’s proposed 2026 finances features a 1% annual tax on crypto holdings exceeding €2 million, requiring self-custodied and offshore holdings to be declared. The coverage creates a honeypot: a government-maintained checklist of high-net-worth crypto holders, together with their addresses.
The technical neighborhood frames crypto safety as key administration, and that is true for on-chain assaults. But the Bobigny case demonstrates that key administration is irrelevant as soon as bodily coercion is launched into the menace mannequin.
Seed phrases saved in {hardware} wallets do not assist when attackers know your deal with and arrive with weapons. The safety failure occurred upstream, within the identification layer.
Service economic system has already shaped
The “uberization” framing from France’s police inspectorate is exact.
Database lookups are bought like commodities, with clear pricing. The Snapchat worth checklist of €30 for automobile registration and €150 for wanted-persons checks reveals the market is productized.
Sellers are staff with reliable entry who acknowledge the arbitrage: lookups value them nothing, consumers pay a whole bunch, and the chance of detection is low.
What’s lacking from countermeasures is an financial mannequin that matches the attacker’s unit economics. France can prosecute particular person instances, however the underlying incentive construction of low cost entry to precious identification knowledge stays intact.
The RCS deal with suppression helps at margins. However it does not deal with the hundreds of presidency staff who’ve reliable entry to tax, regulation enforcement, and judicial databases that comprise every little thing an attacker wants.
Crypto’s promise is disintermediation. No banks, no gatekeepers, no trusted third events. That mannequin works for censorship resistance and seizure safety.
It fails when the menace is bodily coercion enabled by authorities identification methods.
The Bobigny case makes seen a market construction that normally operates invisibly. Targets do not know they have been appeared up till attackers arrive.
