A brutal violent robbery targeting cryptocurrency traders occurred in South Korea. Four teenagers aged 17 to 18 lured their victims to a designated location by using fake over-the-counter transactions. Under the pretense of selling anonymously held cryptocurrencies at low prices, the criminals demanded that the victims pay $23,000 in cash first. During the transaction, they violently abducted the victims and stole the money before escaping.

Police noted that such criminal gangs have been active recently, and many of these attacks are retaliatory in nature after payments in USDT are made, indicating an organized trend in cryptocurrency-related crimes. According to Monitored by Woofun AI, violent incidents targeting industry professionals are on the rise globally, forcing many traders and executives to hire private guards to reduce their risks.

Investigations revealed that the teenagers involved knew each other from a juvenile detention center. They took advantage of the illegal over-the-counter trading environment and the victims’ reluctance to report the incident to plan this crime. They rented vehicles using someone else’s driver’s licenses as tools for the attack. The entire abduction process took just over a minute; during this time, the suspect sitting in the passenger seat even engaged in a fierce struggle with the driver, resulting in his shirt being torn.

Currently, the prosecution has arrested four suspects, including one who assisted in planning the attack, and filed charges against them for serious robbery. A similar case occurred in February last year when a trader in Incheon was tricked into paying $167,000 in exchange for USDT transactions. The communication between the parties took place through an encrypted chat room on KakaoTalk.

Due to the lack of regulation regarding illegal over-the-counter trading in South Korea, criminals are exploiting this loophole to turn virtual assets into immediate sources of violent crime profits. Industry leaders have begun calling on the government to strengthen protective measures for cryptocurrency practitioners, but the current legal framework still falls short when it comes to addressing new types of digital financial crimes.