Wrench attack

Taking someone’s bitcoin by force or the threat of it, instead of by breaking the cryptography. The attacker does not need a supercomputer; the attacker needs the person who knows the keys. The threat scales with how many people know you hold bitcoin and how much, and it is now a line item in a federal filing: MARA disclosed $4,300,629 of personal security for its chief executive in 2025, up from $201,390 the year before, because “the magnitude of our bitcoin holdings, requires heightened attention to the security of our executives.”

The coin has no bills; the known, named holder does. Multisig across vendors, keys in more than one place, an inheritance path, and silence about holdings are the defense. Physical attacks on crypto holders rose 33% in the first half of 2026.