Gang tries to kidnap crypto tycoon’s daughter in central Paris #CriptoNews

Armed men are being hunted in Paris after a failed attempt to kidnap the daughter of a cryptocurrency entrepreneur and her two-year-old in the heart of the French capital.

Video shot from nearby buildings and the street showed a violent struggle after three masked men descended from a delivery van in the Rue Pache in the 11th Arrondissement and grabbed the woman and her child.

The child’s father intervened and fought the would-be kidnappers until they gave up and jumped into the back of the van, which drove away. It was later found abandoned in a nearby street.

Police told the newspaper Le Parisien that the woman is the daughter of the head of a cryptocurrency platform. There was no word on her condition or that of the child.

The incident follows two kidnappings in France so far this year targeting people linked to the cryptocurrency industry.

• Crypto millionaires targeted in series of violent abductions

In January, David Balland — the co-founder of Ledger, a French company valued at more than €1 billion — and his partner were kidnapped from their home in the Cher region of central France. The kidnappers tortured the couple, cutting off one of Balland’s fingers, as they demanded a €10 million ransom.

The couple were found a day later. Police arrested six men and one woman in connection with the crime.

On May 1, the father of a wealthy cryptocurrency entrepreneur was abducted and forced into a delivery van in broad daylight in the 14th Arrondissement. The kidnappers, who demanded a ransom of €5-7 million, also severed one of that victim’s fingers.

Armed police rescued the target in a raid the next day in Palaiseau, a southern suburb. Five suspects were arrested.

Bruno Retailleau, the interior minister, wrote at the time: “A huge congratulations to the investigators who did an exceptional job freeing this man and arresting his captors.”

A police source said the victim’s wife told investigators that her husband and son, who owned a crypto marketing firm in Malta, had received threats in the past.

Cryptocurrency executives have also been targeted by kidnappers elsewhere in Europe over the past two years.