'Bitcoin Family' take drastic measures to protect themselves amid crypto kidnappings
A family that famously bet their entire lives on Bitcoin has taken extreme measures to protect themselves and their digital assets amid an alarming string of crypto kidnappings.
Didi Taihuttu, his wife Romaine and their three daughters have branded themselves as the 'Bitcoin Family' for living solely off cryptocurrency since 2017.
Before Bitcoin took off, Didi sold everything his family had - from his children's toys to their 2,500-square-foot home - to move to a campsite in the Netherlands and continue buying the assets.
Now, the family flaunt their unconventional yet glamorous day-to-days online, showing their tens of thousands of followers the upsides of an 'unbanked' lifestyle as they travel the world.
But a slew of kidnappings and murders of prominent crypto executives has shaken the family, prompting them to adopt a drastic new storage model for their coveted crypto codes.
They have not only ditched hardware wallets - physical devices used to secure crypto keys offline - but opted for a complex security method that sounds straight out of a spy movie.
The family has spent the past eight months hiding metal cards engraved with segments of crypto codes dispersed across four continents.
Other pieces of these seed phrases - the recovery passwords for their crypto wallets - are stored through encryption services, Didi explained to CNBC from Phuket, Thailand.
'We have changed everything,' the 47-year-old father told the outlet. 'Even if someone held me at gunpoint, I can't give them more than what's on my wallet on my phone. And that's not a lot.'
The 24-word crypto keys have been divided into four segments of six words. Each portion of these passwords are stored in a different country or digitally secured through an offline platform.
Those hidden around the world are inscribed into metal cards using a hammer and stamping tool, CNBC reported.
'Even if someone finds 18 of the 24 words, they can't do anything,' Didi told the outlet.
Didi has even swapped out some of the phrases to throw off attackers, meaning he must remember the ones he changed to recover his funds.
The family of five still carries 'hot' wallets, which are private keys on devices connected to the internet, for everyday purchases and trading.
However, these wallets require multiple signatures and authentications before a transaction is processed.
'It's a strange world at the moment,' Didi told CNBC. 'So we're taking our own precautions — and when it comes to wallets, we're now completely hardware wallet-less. We don't use any hardware wallets anymore.'
About 65 percent of the family's cryptocurrency is locked up across the four continents.
Didi feels this dispersed system is safer than having everything secured in one location.
He said companies tasked with protecting crypto codes cannot always be trusted.
'What happens if one of those companies goes bankrupt? Will I still have access? You're putting your capital back in someone else's hands,' he explained.
Didi can add currency to the wallets without the codes but would need to travel internationally to access the crypto.
These stored away funds are a part of his long-term pension plan, he revealed to CNBC.
When it comes to trading crypto, Didi has also taken the decentralized approach and mostly opts for exchanges through platforms such as Apex, which allow for transactions between individuals without an intermediary.
Aside from the logistics of the family's crypto storage, security and trading, Didi shared that his family has been taking a step back from their online fame to preserve their safety.
'It's really my passion to create content. It's really what I love to do every day,' he confessed.
'But if it's not safe anymore for my daughters... I really need to think about them.'
His concerns pertaining to his daughters stem from a harrowing incident in Paris last month.
The 34-year-old daughter of a crypto chief and her child were nearly abducted by three armed men.
The group tried to force her and her toddler into a white van after hitting the child's father, who tried to intervene.
As he was being beaten, the father appeared to yell: 'Help! She's pregnant!'
The victims' screams eventually attracted attention, which led to the attackers fleeing in their van.
'We got a little bit famous in a niche market — but that niche is becoming a really big market now,' Didi told the outlet.
'And I think we'll see more and more of these robberies. So yeah, we're definitely going to skip France.'
This week, a French-Moroccan man suspected of masterminding a series of kidnappings targeting cryptocurrency entrepreneurs in France was arrested in Morocco.
The Taihuttus' fears come as multiple high-profile figures in the crypto realm have been brutally attacked and killed.
Badiss Mohamed Amide Bajjou, 24, was wanted by the French authorities and was the subject of an Interpol red notice for 'arrest, kidnapping, false imprisonment or arbitrary detention of a hostage.'
Bajjou is suspected to be involved in the kidnapping of French crypto boss David Balland and his partner, according to French daily Le Parisien.
Balland co-founded the cryptocurrency firm Ledger, which was valued at more than $1 billion at the time.
His finger was cut off by his kidnappers, who demanded a hefty ransom for his freedom.
Additionally, Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, an Italian Bitcoin investor, was allegedly kidnapped and tortured in a New York City townhouse last month.
The self-proclaimed Crypto King of Kentucky, John Woeltz, and his business partner, William Duplessie, allegedly severely beat, drugged and shocked the victim with electrical wires.
In 2023, Fernando Pérez Algaba, 41, a cryptocurrency influencer and entrepreneur, was shot and dismembered in Argentina.
Dismembered parts of his body were found stuffed in a suitcase by a group of children playing near a stream in Buenos Aires.
The same year, a missing US 'crypto king' Christian Peev, 41, was discovered after workers were called to clear a blocked drain in an apartment in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Investigators believed the alleged killer, Vesco Valchinov, had dismembered the investor's body and dumped his remains down the toilet.
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