Tough loss

Crypto was a veritable hothouse last month. Bitcoin (+11% in May) hit a new high of $111,814 on May 22, per CoinGecko. Ethereum in 31 days surged more than 30%.

Along the way, Coinbase joined the S&P 500 and several U.S. states advanced digital asset reserves aspirations in various forms.

"Crypto soared in May as institutions, states and regulators have embraced BTC," CoinDesk said.

Institutional take-up is seen as a primary driver of the explosive growth of BlackRock's giant Bitcoin ETF. The beast of the still-nascent U.S. crypto fund sector, the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) experienced its largest monthly inflow ever, with roughly $6.4 billion coming in the door in May (Bloomberg).

The wild ride of Hyperliquid's most prolific user has come to a screeching halt.

On Friday, James Wynn, whose hyper-bawdy, levered-up bets captured the imaginations of crypto denizens everywhere, lost more than $100 million after his long BTC positions got liquidated.

At one point, roughly a week ago, Wynn's all-in long exposure amounted to $1.25 billion. Average entry price: $108,000.

As of Saturday, Wynn still maintained a 40x leveraged long position but the bullish gamble completely unraveled as BTC's spot price continued to consolidate, eventually dipping to just below $104K. As of Monday morning, BTC stood at $104.4K.

"Crypto's most watched whale has been fully liquidated," CoinDesk said on Sunday.

To start, Wynn put $3 million worth of stablecoins at stake. A timely PEPE play would ensue. By the middle of May, Wynn's holdings had swelled to $20 million, per DLNews. As BTC surged to a new all-time high of $111.8K, Wynn's unrealized gains reached $100M.

However, in the end, Wynn wound up taking a net loss of $17M, according to CoinDesk.

"One hell of a thrill," Wynn said on X on Friday. "Hope many of you enjoyed it as much as I did.”

A DEX built on Arbitrum, Hyperliquid certainly has reveled in transaction fees as well as all of the attention paid to its high-speed trading features and the transparency of wallet activity (Decrypt).

French authorities have charged 25 people, including six minors, in connection with a spate of kidnappings, and attempted kidnappings, that targeted individuals in France's crypto sector, according to Le Monde.

Among those arrested were low-level subordinates and some senior-level logistics figures while the enterprise's masterminds remain at large, Le Monde said.

At the center of the probe is an abduction attempt carried out in broad daylight on a Parisian street. The targets were the daughter and grandson of Paymium CEO Pierre Noizat. Video footage of the May 13 incident showed three masked men wrestling with two people as a get-away van idles nearby. A similar plot against the exchange executive's family members was attempted one day earlier.

A few days after, police thwarted another kidnapping plot near Nantes, a city in northwestern France. Prosecutors revealed their probe also covers "other unsuccessful plans." And this probe does appear to be linked to the kidnapping on May 1 of the father of a crypto investor. Le Parisien said the kidnappers demanded that the victim's wealthy son pay a ransom. When the victim was rescued by police days later in a house outside of Paris, he was missing a finger.

These recent incidents follow the kidnapping earlier this year of David Balland, co-founder of Ledger, and his wife, from their home in central France. The couple was rescued by police within days. Balland reportedly had one of his fingers cut off. This incident happened back in January.

Last month, Bruno Retailleau, France's Interior Minister, brought together industry professionals to discuss joint measures to boost their protection, including regular security checks of homes by police officers.

According to Cointelegraph, the rise of these types of incidents, including a recent one that involved the alleged torture of an Italian crypto investor visiting New York City, has prompted crypto insurance firms to come up with tailored kidnap and ransom (K&R) policies for crypto investors.

Fears about violent physical attacks was a topic that came up a lot at last week’s Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, said Rebecca Rubenfeld, COO of AnchorWatch, a firm which is planning to launch K&R coverage.

Physical assaults on holders (so-called "wrench attacks") are nothing new but recent incidents have intensified concerns.

"The decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies makes crypto executives attractive targets," Cointelegraph points out. That's because accounts are controlled by individuals, transactions are irreversible and, if criminals extract access credentials, assets can be laundered.