Four people have been detained by South Korean authorities in connection with the death of a 30-year-old Chinese man. Authorities claim he traveled to Jeju, the area city, to finish a personal crypto exchange.
After an encounter of the prey called 112 on Monday afternoon to say they were worried that he had never heard from Mr. A, police picked up the victim’s body, which was only identified as Mr. A.
By the time Jeju Western Police Station officers arrived at his hotel room, Mr. A was dying. According to authorities, he appears to have bled to death after being repeatedly stabbed.
His friend informed the police that the man “went to get online currency,” but he remained anonymous when he arrived at the hotel.
After one of the four suspects, a Chinese lady in her 30s, turned herself in at Seongsan Police Station in Jeju shortly after the initial review, police said they apprehended the first of them.
After making an attempt to leave South Korea, the other three suspects, who are all Foreign nationals, were detained by police at Jeju International Airport.
Police report that the suspects were found with 85 million won ( about$ 52, 500 ) of the victim’s money, although officers are still investigating their specific motives and actions.
A worrying tendency
Chinese nationals have been detained in Jeju before in connection with thefts and cryptocurrency, with six people detained last month after stealing crypto worth 840 million won ( or$ 585, 000 ) from two other Chinese nationals.
In this earlier incident, the suspects fled with the aforementioned cryptocurrency after previously agreeing to pay 1 billion won ($ 697, 000 ) for it. They assaulted rather than murder their victims.
According to a record of actual Bitcoin problems kept by designer Jameson Lopp, such violent incidents of bitcoin have become extremely common in recent years.
He has recorded 30 as having been reported in 2024, as well as 23 in 2023, 33 in 2022, and 36 in 2021.
This compares with 15 in 2020, eight in 2019, 26 in 2018, 12 in 2017, four in 2016, five in 2015 and only one in 2014 ( although Lopp notes that his “list is not comprehensive, many attacks are not publicly reported” ).
He has recorded ten so far in 2025 ( not including the latest Island incident ), raising the possibility that so-called’ bolt strikes ‘ may become more popular.
Becca Rubenfeld, a co-founder of AnchorWatch, explains how these attacks came to be known and how even the most sophisticated security measures can be circumvented by the adage of murder.
” A criminal, with’ a screwdriver they paid$ 5 for,’ may scare you into giving up access to your Cryptocurrency or cryptocurrency”, she says. The best plans may be thwarted by a gun to a victim’s head or the nose of a loved one, they say.
Rubenfeld information that AnchorWatch, which provides prison plan backed by Lloyd’s of London, believes the trend of screw attacks did” continue to accelerate”, with perpetrators attacking victims “even for relatively moderate sums” of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
She states that you don’t need to possess tens of millions for to become a potential victim because they have been abducted or attacked for the sake of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin.
Privacy is essential
Jameson Lopp, who was the victim of a slapping assault in 2017, also has a suspicion that forced crypto thefts may increase.
He tells that” this type of attack appears to be around correlated with the size of the market and the general adoption of crypto.” More criminally minded players are looking into how to use their expertise to pin crypto owners as adoption grows.
The most famous wrenching incident to time occurred in the abduction of Ledger co-founder David Balland, who was held hostage for 24 hours in his residence in France until the National Gendarmerie were able to open them in January of this year.
Screw attacks may not always be totally avoidable for those with a high profile, but the average cryptocurrency owner can significantly lower their risk for Lopp.
He explains,” Avoiding this particularly high risk exercise is very simple: Don’t participate in face-to-face industries”.
The most recent Jeju incident, which Lopp refers to as an example of “one of the more popular forms of screw attack,” involved using the present of a very lucrative business to overthrow the victim’s better view.
And for Rubenfeld, it’s also vitally important that crypto investors do not publicize their holdings.
She says,” The fewer people who know about your holdings, the less likely you will ever become a target”.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
