Disclaimer: This article contains a video that may be disturbing for some readers.

A brazen attempt to kidnap the daughter and grandson of Pierre Noizat, the co-founder and CEO of French crypto exchange Paymium, was foiled after the daughter and passersby reportedly fought off the kidnappers.

Three masked men attacked Noizat’s daughter and a male partner on May 13 while she was walking with her son in Paris’ 11th district. The assailants tried to force Noizat’s daughter and her son into a waiting van, the French state-owned media outlet France24 reported on May 13.

The accompanying male partner was assaulted when he tried to intervene, but Noizat’s daughter resisted and managed to take one of the guns off an assailant in a scuffle and throw it away, police said.

En plein Paris, un homme a été violenté par des individus cagoulés, habillés tout en noir. Ils tentaient de l’enlever. Un homme a surgi, extincteur à la main, pour les faire fuir. →https://t.co/P0qV6PR40v pic.twitter.com/9f4r2Gi7ho

— Le Figaro (@Le_Figaro) May 13, 2025

Eventually, people passing by intervened, and the masked assailants fled in the van, which was found nearby. All three victims suffered injuries and were taken to a local hospital.

Local outlet Le Parisien reported that the botched daylight kidnapping is being investigated by the Brigade for the Suppression of Banditry, a special police unit of the French Ministry of the Interior.

Michael Englander, co-founder and CEO of Polish crypto exchange Plasbit, says this incident should serve as a wake-up call for the rest of the industry.

“If you’re in crypto and still flaunting it online, you’re not just stupid, you’re putting your family in danger,” he said in a May 13 post to X.

Offline crypto-linked attacks grow

Crypto-focused lawyer Sasha Hodder said on X that “crypto theft is evolving. It’s not just social engineering or SIM swaps anymore.”

In May, Las Vegas police said three teenagers had allegedly kidnapped a man at gunpoint who was returning from a local crypto event and robbed him of $4 million in crypto and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

On May 3, Paris police freed the father of a crypto entrepreneur who was held for several days in connection with a 7 million euro ($7.8 million) kidnapping plot.

At the start of the year, David Balland, co-founder of crypto hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger, was abducted from his home in central France during the early hours of Jan. 21. He was held captive until a police operation on the night of Jan. 22 secured his release. 

Related: Crypto broker breaks ankles while fleeing kidnappers in Spain

Jameson Lopp, a cypherpunk and co-founder of self-custodial firm Casa, has created a list on GitHub recording dozens of offline crypto robberies, with 22 incidents of in-person crypto-related theft so far this year.

A University of Cambridge study in September found these so-called “wrench attacks” are often underreported due to revictimization fears and involve a diverse group of attackers ranging from organized crime groups to friends and family.

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Stablecoin issuer Tether bought $458.7 million worth of Bitcoin for Twenty One Capital, a Bitcoin investment firm it backed that’s awaiting the completion of a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) merger with Cantor Equity Partners.

Tether snapped up 4,812.2 Bitcoin (BTC) at $95,319 each and transferred it to an escrow wallet on May 9, Cantor Equity Partners disclosed in a May 13 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

It brings Twenty One’s total Bitcoin holdings to 36,312 BTC, as Cantor Equity Partners holds 31,500 BTC on behalf of the firm, which will trade under the ticker XXI once the SPAC merger is complete.

Twenty One’s CEO, Jack Mallers, said on May 13 that they’re already in the approval process of the merger, but didn’t give an exact estimate on when the transaction would be complete.

Twenty One is already the third largest corporate Bitcoin holder, trailing only Strategy and Bitcoin mining firm MARA Holdings at 568,840 Bitcoin and 48,237 Bitcoin, respectively, BitcoinTreasuries.net data shows.

Tether is a majority stakeholder in Twenty One alongside crypto exchange Bitfinex. The Wall Street heavyweight Cantor Fitzgerald is sponsoring the merger, providing financial advisory services and securing $585 million in funding to support Twenty One’s Bitcoin investments.

Japanese investment holding firm SoftBank also invested $900 million into Twenty One, which is led by Strike CEO Jack Mallers.

Strategy may have a legitimate competitor

Twenty One said in an April presentation to the SEC that is looking to supplant Michael Saylor’s Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, to become the “superior vehicle” for investors seeking “capital-efficient Bitcoin exposure.”

The company is among many Bitcoin buying firms, but promises to be a “pure play” for investors seeking Bitcoin exposure with Bitcoin-native operations and more flexibility for strategic capital raises. 

Twenty One Capital’s comparison of its Bitcoin treasury plan to that of Strategy’s. Source: SEC

Twenty One said its key success metric will be Bitcoin per share and not the traditional earnings per share metric, as it will prioritize buying up Bitcoin over making a profit.

Related: Nakamoto Holdings merges with KindlyMD to build Bitcoin treasury

Twenty One is aiming to reach 42,000 Bitcoin by the time it launches. Earlier filings showed that 23,950 Bitcoin is expected to come from Tether, 10,500 Bitcoin from Softbank and about 7,000  Bitcoin from Bitfinex, which will be converted into equity at $10 per share.

Cantor Equity Partners’ (CEP) share price soared from $10.65 to $59.73 on May 2 but has since fallen back to $29.84, Google Finance data shows. CEP rose another 5.2% in after-hours following the recent purchase.

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CoinShares, a digital asset investment firm with offices in the United States and Europe, said its net profit fell to $24 million in the first quarter of 2025, a 42.2% decrease from the same period a year ago.

Although CoinShares’s profits and EBITDA remained positive in Q1 2025, the margins declined compared to the same period in 2024. Last year, CoinShares posted a net profit of $41.5 million and an EBITDA of $35.5 million in the first three months. Year-over-year, CoinShares’s net profit dropped 42.2% and its EBITDA fell 15.5%.

The firm’s ETPs contributed to the quarter’s performance. For Q1 2025, CoinShares’s ETPs saw net inflows of $268 million, with $202 million coming from its Physical Bitcoin (BITC) ETP. Revenue related to assets under management increased from $24.5 million to $29.6 million, a rise of 20.8%.

Year-to-date, CoinShares’s stock is down 9.4%, according to Google Finance.

CoinShares disclosed a $30 million EBITDA in Q125, despite market turbulence. Source. CoinShares

In a letter to shareholders, the company’s CEO, Jean-Marie Mognetti, said macroeconomic headwinds during the quarter exceeded market movements. “What we are witnessing is not mere market volatility — it is a wholesale transformation of the global economic order.”

According to Mognetti, Ether’s underperformance over the quarter led to $23 million in outflows from its CoinShares Physical Staked Ethereum ETP (ETHE). “Due to broader market corrections — including a 12.1% decline in Bitcoin prices — assets under management (AuM) fell 10.7%, closing Q1 at $1.52 billion.”

Related: Robinhood beats Q1 estimates despite revenue, crypto trading dip

Crypto companies show mixed results during market upheaval

The first wave of Q1 2025 earnings from crypto firms suggests a broadly negative quarter, with revenue declines across sectors.

Coinbase revenue, for instance, fell 10% quarter-over-quarter in Q1 2025, as transaction revenue plummeted 19% to $1.3 billion. Kraken, another US-based cryptocurrency exchange, saw its revenue decline 7% from Q4 2024. Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin treasury company, Strategy, also missed Wall Street’s estimates, alongside Bitcoin miner Core Scientific.

The quarter was marked by high volatility across financial markets after US President Donald Trump unleashed global tariffs on trade partners, dragging the BTC price to lows of $78,000 over the period. Ether (ETH) also experienced a significant pullback.

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