Crypto CEO Security Costs Surge as Physical Attacks Rise 75%

Coinbase reportedly spent approximately $7.6 million on personal security for CEO Brian Armstrong in 2025, a more than 20% increase from the year before.

This is according to the company’s proxy filings cited in a report by Bloomberg, with the spending coming after physical attacks on crypto holders rose 75% last year. Per data from blockchain security firm CertiK, there have been 72 confirmed incidents and $41 million in known losses.

Crypto Firms Tighten Security After Wave of Violent Attacks

That $7.6 million figure stated in the Bloomberg piece exceeds what major Wall Street banks typically disclose for CEO protection. For context, Gemini reportedly spent around $2.5 million on security for the two co-founders, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, in 2025 and has since signed a deal to protect the twins and their families for $400,000 per month.

Circle spent nearly $800,000 on its CEO, Jeremy Allaire, in 2024, while Robinhood spent approximately $1.6 million on Vlad Tenev. The rest of the industry reaction can be observed in other places as well. For example, during the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas just last month, high-profile speakers could be seen walking around with personal bodyguards.

And to show how seriously the community is taking security, a workshop led by Bitcoin security expert Ben Perrin that taught attendees how to protect their digital assets under physical coercion, as well as how to use decoy wallets, time-lock mechanisms, and duress features on hardware wallets, was one of the most heavily attended at the conference.

It was the same a few weeks earlier at Paris Blockchain Week, where guests were escorted by a police motorcade to a VIP dinner while organizers doubled security around the event.

The threat is very real, as seen when a crypto holder known online as Sillytuna reported in March that armed attackers stole around $24 million in tokens after physically intimidating him and threatening him with kidnapping and sexual assault.

The Structural Problem Beneath the Headlines

The reason why crypto owners are so vulnerable boils down to the technology itself. As we know, public blockchains are pseudonymous and not anonymous, thus revealing ownership information for anyone with proper analytical tools to view. As such, leaked exchange data and chain analytics have together created, as Bloomberg put it, “a legible map of who holds what.”

For that reason, demand for protection services has responded accordingly. Executive Risk Services, a firm focused on the digital-asset industry, went from receiving client inquiries roughly once per quarter two years ago to about once a week now.

Meanwhile, Amsterdam-based Infinite Risks International, which provides bodyguards, armored vehicles, and social media monitoring to crypto holders, has seen more inquiries, more long-term clients, and more proactive requests, according to managing director Jethro Pijlman. According to the report, France has become a hotspot for crypto crime after a string of attacks on crypto entrepreneurs and their families.

Things have gotten so bad that last year, the country’s Interior Minister promised to establish a priority emergency number for the industry, with elite police units offering security briefings for crypto executives and their families.

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