CustodyStress
Archive › Physical coercion
Part of the CustodyStress archive of observed Bitcoin custody incidents
CS-00222

Physical coercion — exchange custody (2015)

Blocked
Case description
An August 2015 case documents a Bitcoin trader who was held at gunpoint in their home and forced to initiate an exchange withdrawal. The attackers had advance knowledge of the victim's holdings from social media. The withdrawal was processed before police arrived. The exchange's withdrawal confirmation email arrived after the funds had already moved.
Custody context
Stress conditionPhysical coercion
Custody systemExchange custody
OutcomeBlocked
DocumentationUnknown
Year observed2015
CountryUnknown
Structural dependencies observed
Single point of failure
What this illustrates
No backup path existed. One point of failure was all it took. Access was not recoverable.
Outcome interpretation
Access was not possible under the reported conditions.
Source
Publicly Reported
Evidence type
Forum post
Related cases involving physical coercion
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Framework references
Terms guide
Survives
Access remained possible under the reported conditions.
Constrained
Access remained possible, but only with delay, dependence, or significant difficulty.
Blocked
Access was not possible under the reported conditions.
Indeterminate
There was not enough information to determine the outcome.
Single-person knowledge
Recovery depended on information or capability held by one individual who was unavailable.
Institutional dependence
Recovery depended on a third-party institution or service that was inaccessible or uncooperative.
Documentation gap
Recovery depended on instructions that were missing, incomplete, or unclear.
Authority mismatch
The person with legal authority to act did not have operational access, or vice versa.
Original text
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