A court in Belgium has issued 12-year prison sentences to three individuals involved in the December 2024 kidnapping of the wife of a local cryptocurrency entrepreneur. The case, which has drawn attention within both legal and crypto communities, centers on a ransom demand made in digital assets, highlighting the growing concerns about the intersection of financial technology and physical security. Court Ruling and Ongoing Investigations The Brussels Criminal Court found the trio guilty of hostage-taking after abducting the victim outside her residence and forcing her into a van. The kidnappers reportedly demanded a crypto ransom in exchange for her release. Authorities acted swiftly after the woman’s husband, Stéphane Winkel, a known figure in the local crypto education scene, alerted law enforcement. Police intercepted the vehicle and executed a high-risk maneuver to halt it, freeing the victim and apprehending the suspects. In addition to the prison terms, the court ordered the convicted individuals to pay a civil compensation of at least €1 million (approximately $1.2 million) to the victim. While the sentences mark the legal conclusion for the three kidnappers, the case remains open in some respects. The court acknowledged that the principal figures behind the orchestration of the crime are still unknown. The defendants’ claims that they were acting under duress, allegedly threatened with death if they did not carry out the kidnapping, were dismissed by the court. The case also involves a minor, whose role is being addressed separately through Belgium’s juvenile justice system. According to reports from La Dernière Heure, the court emphasized the seriousness of the offense and the need to maintain deterrence, particularly in criminal activities intersecting with emerging financial sectors like crypto. The victim and her family have not been named in detail in court documents to protect their privacy, but the psychological toll has reportedly been substantial. The Effect on Winkel Family and Crypto Community Stéphane Winkel is known for his educational efforts within the cryptocurrency space. He runs platforms such as Crypto Académie and Crypto Sun, which aim to make digital asset investing more accessible to the public. His YouTube channel, which has roughly over 39,000 subscribers, typically featured tutorials, giveaways, and wallet walkthroughs. However, the traumatic incident has prompted a shift in both his personal and public life. In a post on X  published shortly after the incident, Winkel stated, “I consider myself a defender of freedom, but I now realize that safety must become an absolute priority for me and those around me.” He also pledged to avoid public wallet demonstrations or promotional giveaways going forward, instead focusing his content on market analysis and education. After several months of silence, Winkel returned to YouTube in June 2025, opting for voice-only narration in his videos rather than appearing on camera, a move that aligns with his new emphasis on privacy and security. Featured image created with DALL-E, Chart from TradingView

Coinbase is facing a new class action lawsuit claiming that investors suffered significant losses over the years due to the crypto exchange’s “omissions,” which have affected the company’s stock price. Coinbase Accused Of Key ‘Omissions’ Last week, a Coinbase investor filed a class action lawsuit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Coinbase, CEO Brian Armstrong, and CFO Alesia Hass, alleging that the company’s shareholders have suffered “significant losses and damages” over the past four years. In the May 22 complaint, investor Brady Nessler, on behalf of persons or entities who purchased or otherwise acquired publicly traded Coinbase securities between April 14, 2021, and May 14, 2025, claims that the exchange has a long list of “wrongful acts and omissions” that have led to the “precipitous decline in the market value of the Company’s common shares” affecting the Plaintiff and other Class members. Among the omissions, the lawsuit lists the company’s recent data breach and its failure to disclose that it breached its 2020 agreement with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). In October 2020, the company’s UK subsidiary, Coinbase Payments (CBPL), signed a voluntary agreement to prevent onboarding clients considered “high risk” by the regulator and reduce potential criminal activity on the CBPL platform. The lawsuit alleges that the company made several “materially false and misleading” statements at the time that omitted that Coinbase Payments, Ltd. (CBPL) had been found guilty by the UK regulator of having “inadequate anti-money laundering focused systems to prevent high-risk individuals from using its platform, and that CBPL then breached the Agreement designed to address those deficiencies, creating legal exposure.” Notably, the price of the company’s common stock reportedly fell by $13.52 per share, a 5.52% decline, when a Reuters article titled “Coinbase UK unit fined for breaching financial crime requirements” was published during market hours on July 25, 2024. The FCA fined Coinbase’s UK subsidiary a $4.5 million penalty for breaching the voluntary agreement. Data Breach Leads To Class Action Lawsuits Moreover, the Class action suit argues that the recent data breaches also resulted in significant losses and damages for stockholders, highlighting the May 15 statement from the crypto exchange. As reported by Bitcoinist, Brian Armstrong shared that threat actors bribed a handful of customer support contractors to access Coinbase’s internal tools, resulting in the breach of names, email addresses, limited transaction records, and partial Social Security numbers of 1% of the exchange’s users. The hackers attempted to blackmail the exchange, demanding $20 million in Bitcoin (BTC) to return the sensitive customer data. However, Armstrong revealed they refused to pay the ransom. The lawsuit states that, following the news, the price of Coinbase’s common stock fell by $19.85 per share, a 7.2% decline, to close at $244 on May 15, 2025. Since then, multiple lawsuits have been filed against the crypto exchange, and a US Department of Justice Investigation has been opened. Based on this, Plaintiff seeks to “recover compensable damages caused by Defendants’ violations of the federal securities laws under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the ‘Exchange Act’).”