The father of an unnamed crypto entrepreneur was freed by police in Paris, France, during a law enforcement raid of the property where the man was held captive for ransom over several days.

According to reporting from Le Monde, the May 3 raid resulted in five arrests. Local outlet Le Parisien also said the kidnappers demanded between 5 million and 7 million euros, or up to $7.9 million, to release the captive man.

Although the details on the identity of the victims remain scant, likely for security reasons, the crypto entrepreneur and his father co-owned a crypto marketing firm based in Malta, French media reports.

This incident features similarities to the kidnapping of Ledger co-founder David Balland in France in January 2025. Balland was also held for a crypto ransom until he was freed by law enforcement officers in a rescue operation.

Unfortunately, this latest incident also follows a string of similar ransom attempts around the world targeting crypto users and their loved ones in an attempt to extort funds from individuals perceived to hold a sizable amount of wealth.

Related: $330M Bitcoin social engineering theft victim is elderly US citizen

Crypto kidnapping attempts sadly become all too common

In November 2024, WonderFi CEO Dean Skurka was kidnapped and forced to pay a $1 million cryptocurrency ransom to the assailants, who abducted him using a vehicle in downtown Toronto, Canada.

Six individuals in Chicago, Illinois were charged in February 2025 with the kidnapping of a family and their nanny in exchange for a crypto ransom.

According to an FBI report, the kidnappers forced their way inside the Chicago home by pretending they had accidentally damaged the family’s mechanical garage door.

Once inside, the suspects forced the family into a van and abducted the family for five days before forcing them to surrender $15 million worth of cryptocurrencies to secure their release.

Online streamer Amouranth was the victim of a home invasion in March 2025 when several armed suspects held her at gunpoint and demanded the keys to her cryptocurrency.

Four suspects were charged in connection to the incident and arrested by law enforcement officials in the US state of Texas.

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The government of Maldives signed an agreement with MBS Global Investments, a Dubai-based family office, to develop a $9 billion crypto and blockchain hub in Malé, the capital of the South Pacific archipelago nation.

According to a report from the Financial Times, the agreement, which was signed on May 4, was done in the hopes of moving the Maldives away from reliance on tourism and fisheries by attracting foreign direct investment into blockchain and Web3 technologies.

The project outlines plans for the Maldives International Financial Centre, an 830,000-square-meter facility that will reportedly employ up to 16,000 individuals.

Completing the project will take an estimated five years and the capital requirements for the ambitious development are more than the $7 billion in annual gross domestic product (GDP) of the Maldives.

The geographic location of Maldives. Source: Worldometer

The planned crypto hub reflects the growing importance of the crypto industry worldwide. However, the Maldives’ ambitions to become a global center for financial technology must contend with well-capitalized, established jurisdictions like Dubai, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Related: Slovenia’s capital of Ljubljana ranked as world’s most crypto-friendly city

Established crypto and fintech hubs already on the scene

Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is a rapidly growing crypto and Web3 hub thanks to its positive regulatory environment that encourages innovation and a local government willing to explore blockchain technology in real-world applications.

On April 6, Dubai’s Land Department (DLD) and the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) signed an agreement to connect the land registry to blockchain, allowing for more comprehensive real estate tokenization.

Hong Kong has also positioned itself as a crypto hub through proactive regulations that have attracted hundreds of Web3 and fintech firms.

According to Ivan Ivanov, global CEO of WOW Summit, a blockchain conference in Hong Kong, the special economic zone leverages its position as a bridge between Western economies and China to attract investment and serves as a regulatory sandbox.

Singapore is also a major international crypto center, with dozens of digital asset exchanges based inside the country and hundreds of Web3 firms headquartered there.

The country continues to attract global investment through a regulatory approach that encourages technological experimentation without fear of regulatory reprisal.

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Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor hinted at an impending Bitcoin (BTC) purchase, marking the fourth consecutive week of purchases by the BTC treasury company.

The company’s most recent acquisition occurred on April 28 when Strategy purchased 15,355 BTC, valued at over $1.4 billion at the time, bringing the company’s total holdings to 553,555 BTC.

According to data from SaylorTracker, Strategy is up approximately 39% on its investment, representing over $15 billion in unrealized gains.

Strategy’s history of Bitcoin acquisition. Source: SaylorTracker

Bitcoin investors continue closely monitoring the company, which has been a major driver of direct institutional exposure to BTC by popularizing the Bitcoin corporate treasury concept and indirectly through institutions holding Strategy’s stock in their investment portfolios.

Related: Strategy ends April up 32% in best month since November as Q1 earnings loom

Strategy misses Q1 analyst estimates but continues stacking Bitcoin

Strategy fell short of analyst estimates for Q1 2025, reporting approximately $111 million in revenue, down by 3.6% from Q1 2024 and missing analyst expectations by 5%.

However, the company also reported that it acquired 61,497 BTC so far in 2025 and also revealed plans to raise $21 billion through an equity offering to finance the purchase of more BTC.

The quarter-by-quarter growth of Strategy’s Bitcoin treasury. Source: Strategy

Asset manager Richard Byworth recently suggested that Strategy should acquire companies with ample cash reserves and convert those fiat cash reserves to Bitcoin for its treasury.

Byworth added that Strategy could also purchase Bitcoin on the open market as exchange balances dwindle, rather than the over-the-counter (OTC) transactions between private parties that do not affect the market exchange price.

Doing so would push prices higher, driving up the value of Strategy’s Bitcoin reserves and acting as a catalyst attracting even more investors to BTC, the asset manager said.

Strategy’s effect on Bitcoin’s price and Bitcoin adoption continues to draw intense discussion over the role of the company as it relates to market dynamics.

Adam Livingston, a BTC analyst and author of “The Bitcoin Age and The Great Harvest,” recently argued that Strategy’s demand for BTC is synthetically halving Bitcoin by outpacing the daily miner output.

Livingston pointed out that Strategy’s average daily rate of Bitcoin accumulation of roughly 2,087 BTC far outstrips the collective daily mined supply of around 450 BTC.

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