Three teens charged with kidnapping a man at gunpoint in Las Vegas. They then allegedly proceeded to steal and launder over $4 million worth of cryptocurrency and NFTs. The victim, who had recently been hosting a crypto event in Las Vegas, was kidnapped after arriving home. The suspects then took him at gunpoint into a field and ordered him to lie down.

In the remote Nevada desert, approximately one hour from Las Vegas, they made the victim surrender his cryptocurrency account passwords. It was a politically treacherous environment that gave him no option. As a result, those accounts were drained of the $4 million. The displaced victim had to walk five miles through the desert to get to a gas station. There, he immediately called upon one friend for assistance.

Each of the two 16-year-olds from Florida has or will shortly be charged with robbery, kidnapping, and extortion. As of yesterday, one of the teens remained in jail—with bail set at $4 million. The other has been released and is under house arrest with an electronic monitor. Both boys are due back in court for a preliminary hearing in June and will be tried as adults. Prosecutors claim a third teen accused of participating in the crime has since fled the country.

The attack is not isolated, but instead marks a continuation of a recent uptick in in-person, crypto-related armed robberies. As Sasha Hodder previously explained, today’s crypto theft has taken on a different form.

"Crypto theft is evolving. It’s not just social engineering or SIM swaps anymore." - Sasha Hodder

That’s the 21st instance of in-person, crypto-related robbery this year alone. We are on track to surpass in 2024 the number of these types of incidents in 2023 (17), and even in 2021 (32).

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There have been 21 incidents of in-person crypto-related robbery so far this year. In 2024, there were 28 such incidents, compared to 17 in 2023 and 32 in 2021.