A crypto trader in Herzliya was allegedly bound, beaten, and stabbed in his own home during a brutal robbery that netted thieves approximately $600,000 in crypto, the latest victim in what security analysts are calling a global wave of “wrench attacks” targeting crypto holders.
The Tel Aviv District Attorney’s Office indicted Murad Mahajna of Tel Aviv this week for orchestrating the home invasion alongside two accomplices, according to a local media report.
According to prosecutors, the repeat offender with ten prior convictions discovered that the victim owned Bitcoin and planned the attack on the father of two, who lives with his wife and daughters.
The ordeal took place on September 7, when three suspects allegedly ambushed the victim in his building’s stairwell, with two masked assailants forcing him inside, binding his hands with cables, and brutally beating him.
“We came to take money, we are from the Karaja family,” Mahajna, who was not wearing a mask, allegedly told the victim, while initially demanding 500 BTC worth approximately $61 million.
Prosecutors claim that when the victim refused to surrender his wallet credentials, one assailant grabbed a kitchen knife and held it to his neck as Mahajna warned, “Let me get you out of this incident alive,” before stabbing him twice, once in each leg above the knee.
The victim finally yielded access to his accounts, allowing the assailants over the next hour to transfer $547,260 in Bitcoin and $42,248 in USDT to their wallets. They also seized a $50,000 Rolex, a laptop, a Trezor hardware wallet, €5,000, and several thousand shekels in cash, prosecutors said.
Fearing for his family’s safety, the victim stayed silent for several days before confiding in relatives, who urged him to go to the police; investigators arrested Mahajna on September 10 using recorded calls, voice analysis, and security camera evidence.
Bitcoin “wrench attacks”
So-called “wrench attacks” in which crypto holders are physically attacked are on the rise.
Security researcher Jameson Lopp, who maintains a database tracking these incidents, tweeted that at the start of the year he had predicted 2025 would be “an all-time high for wrench attacks and we’d average one per week,” adding that the incident in Israel is the 52nd such attack of the year.
September alone saw four wrench attacks globally, according to Lopp’s database.
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“My advice is to obscure any physical data and conceal carry, and unfortunately, in most of the world, you can’t do the latter,” Mehow Pospieszalski, CEO of decentralized wallet platform AmericanFortress, told Decrypt.
He said that weak cooperation between the crypto community and authorities has worsened the situation, with “law enforcement not exactly proactive about protecting founders” and a “vibe of mistrust” from the crypto side that hinders the very coordination needed to catch such criminals.
Last month, French authorities deployed 150 gendarmes to rescue a 20-year-old Swiss man found tied up in a house near Valence’s high-speed train station in one such wrench attack.