Investor and crypto millionaire Evan Luthra, who made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, has revealed the details of a brutal kidnapping that took place last autumn in Oxford. Five masked criminals forced him to hand over more than $2 million in cryptocurrency — and this is only part of a broader picture of growing violent attacks on holders of digital assets.
Police initially did not name the victim. Luthra himself decided to speak out about what happened, emphasizing that the hardest ordeal began later: he was deprived of his phone for several hours, and during that time the stolen funds were transferred between accounts.
30 minutes of nightmare
On November 4, 2025, after an event at Oxford University, Luthra and four friends set off for London. For several days he had been driven by a personal driver recommended by an acquaintance. On the way, the car turned onto a secluded tree-lined lane — five masked men burst in, beat the investor, and stated they had come specifically for him.
"In the first ten seconds I realized I was being kidnapped. I also realized I would lose millions of dollars," Luthra recalls. He did not resist: "There were five kidnappers — I gave them everything."
First they took his limited-edition Richard Mille watch, which police valued at approximately £450,000. Then they unlocked his phone via Face ID. Assets worth just over $1.5 million were withdrawn from his Binance account, and another roughly $600,000 in Ethereum (ETH) was taken from his account on the Gate exchange. After that, the criminals attempted to gain access to bank accounts.
Half an hour later, the attackers fled, taking everyone's phones. They abandoned the car on Five Mile Drive in north Oxford. Without means of communication, the group walked to the nearest police station — by the time their statements were completed, midnight had already passed. All this time Luthra remained without internet access and could not warn anyone or stop the transfers.
"Looking back, I consider this my biggest mistake. If I had first been able to return to the hotel, access a laptop, and message contacts at the exchanges, I would have been able to save a much larger portion of the money," he noted. The delay proved critical: exchanges can freeze funds only while they are on their platforms.
Exchanges came to the rescue
As soon as Luthra gained access to devices, he contacted Binance and MEXC. Both platforms froze part of the funds and helped recover the stolen assets. Binance returned about $370,000 — this required a UK court order under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), which allows for the seizure and return of illegally obtained funds. The process was handled by the London law firm Cooke, Young & Keidan. MEXC also blocked funds and shared data on the further movement of assets, which helped the investigation.
In total, Luthra managed to recover just under $1 million. A significant portion of the stolen funds has still not been found.
Investigation and trial
Thames Valley Police conducted, as Sergeant Stuart McMaster noted, a "complex investigation": CCTV footage and automatic number plate recognition systems were examined, and requests were made regarding cryptocurrency and banking transactions. In November 2025, four men from London, Birmingham, and Kent aged 19 to 37 were detained — all were released on bail. In December, 24-year-old Abdul Malik Kali was charged with five counts of conspiracy to commit robbery; he was detained at Heathrow Airport and remanded in custody. The trial has been postponed to November 2027.
Number of attacks aimed at obtaining cryptocurrency is rising sharply
Luthra's story fits into the general pattern of so-called wrench attacks, where criminals use physical force to force victims to hand over crypto assets. In 2025, a record $58 million was stolen through such attacks, and in the first half of 2026, another $30 million. The largest increase was recorded in France. When criminals try to cash out stolen funds through exchanges, their chain becomes more visible — this is precisely what allowed Luthra to recover part of the funds, although the window of opportunity closed very quickly.
"Money can be earned again. Watches can also be bought new… But you can't come back to life or heal injuries," the investor concluded.
Cryptalist analysis: Luthra's case demonstrates that institutional infrastructure — POCA court orders and prompt exchange response — is becoming a real tool for asset recovery, but only on the condition of instant blocking on the platform. The rise in physical attacks on cryptocurrency holders creates a new class of operational risks in which the public nature of capital becomes a vulnerability. For large investors, this is a signal to reconsider personal security and distribute assets across custodial and geographically dispersed structures.