The former Royal Marine helping Bitcoin billionaires evade kidnap

Avoiding detection, escaping zip-ties and inflicting pain on would-be tormentors are some of the techniques Briton Peter Kayll is teaching terrified cryptocurrency investors following a rise in violent attacks against them

- BY PETER SHERIDAN

FORMER Royal Marine Peter Kayll teaches billionaires how to dislocate a kneecap with a quick sharp kick. But he prefers a swift punch to the collar bone. "It's a larger target, and a broken clavicle hurts like hell, so it'll stop an attacker in their tracks," reveals Kayll, a muscular security consultant who trains wealthy Bitcoin investors how to avoid becoming a target.

Kidnapping and extortion attacks on cryptocurrency investors have soared with increasing violence in the past year, as the price of Bitcoin rose to more than £96,000. Though Bitcoin has fallen this month, attacks on cryptocurrency investors have barely slackened.

A San Francisco man was robbed of £8.4million in cryptocurrency last month by a thief posing as a delivery driver who forced his way into the executive's home.

"Most cryptocurrency investors are tech nerds, and don't realise how they make themselves a target for attackers," says Kayll, aged 49, from Durham, who served in Iraq, Bosnia, Northern Ireland and Sierra Leone during his ten years with the Royal Marines.

"Crimes against crypto investors are increasing, but most targets are ignorant of what's going on around them.

"They can be oblivious to the danger they put themselves in."

Britain has the second-highest physical attacks on cryptocurrency investors in the world, trailing only America, according to statistics compiled by crypto security group Glok. Globally, 56% of all crypto attacks are kidnappings, home invasions and armed robberies in public places.

'We are at one kidnapping and extortion per week'

Crypto investors go to extraordinary lengths to safeguard their Bitcoin, which exists only as digital records on the blockchain, and is routinely protected by multiple encrypted passwords.

But all it takes is an attacker threatening to bludgeon an investor with a 5lb metal wrench to persuade them to relinquish their passwords and fortunes.