Flaunting Bitcoin on social media makes you a wrench-attack…

Crypto journalist Joe Nakamoto used a May 22 video to warn Bitcoin holders to stop broadcasting their wealth — on social media, at dinner parties, or anywhere in public. The advice follows a wave of physical "wrench attacks" targeting crypto holders in France and beyond, where criminals use coercion rather than code to extract assets.

Nakamoto was clear that the threat is not confined to France: any jurisdiction where crypto ownership is visible is a jurisdiction where holders are at risk. His prescription is practical — improve security setups, reduce public exposure, and organise community-level defences rather than living in fear.

The irony he highlights is pointed: the very fact that criminals are willing to use physical violence to seize Bitcoin is, in his view, the strongest possible rebuttal to ECB President Christine Lagarde's long-standing claim that crypto assets carry "no intrinsic value." If the assets were worthless, nobody would be breaking down doors to steal them.