A French tax officer in Bobigny abused internal government systems toย profile crypto professionals, prison guards, judges, and billionaire Vincent Bollorรฉย then sold that data to criminals.
Price tag:ย โฌ800ย for an attack carried out at a prison guardโs home in Montreuil.
Her appeal was rejected onย January 6.
This case matters not because itโs rare but because it reveals aย new attack vector.
๐ The Shift in the Threat Model
Crypto holders usually fear:
Exchange hacksTelegram doxxingOn-chain exploits
But this attack didnโt come from Web3.
It came fromย privileged access to state identity systemsย where a single query links:
NameHome addressPhone numberFamily structureCapital gains and asset types
This is not doxxing.
This isย institutional identity extraction.
๐ A Black Market With a Price List
French media uncovered an underground โmenuโ:
โฌ30 vehicle registration lookupโฌ150 wanted-person database checkโฌ250 illegal vehicle unblocking
France recordedย 93 investigationsย into professional secrecy violations andย 76 data diversion casesย in 2024 alone.
Authorities call it theย โUberizationโ of state data access.
๐ง IRL MEV: Real-World Maximum Extractable Value
On-chain, MEV comes from seeing transactions first.
In real life, MEV comes fromย seeing identity graphs firstย then choosing the cheapest coercion path.
Once identity is exposed:
Cryptography no longer mattersSelf-custody becomes a liabilitySecurity shifts from math to physical force
A hardware wallet doesnโt help when attackers know your address.
โ๏ธ Crypto + Identity = Physical Risk
Crypto holders are uniquely exposed:
Assets canโt be frozen or reversedValue transfers instantlyReporting attacks can trigger tax scrutiny
France already removed home addresses of crypto executives from public registries inย 2025.
But tax databases remain accessible toย thousands of civil servants, with monitoring mostlyย after the damage is done.
๐งจ The Coming Honeypot Problem
Franceโs draftย 2026 budgetย proposes:
Aย 1% annual taxย on crypto assets over โฌ2MMandatory declaration of self-custodied and offshore holdings
Result?
Aย state-managed list of high-value crypto holders + addresses.
From a threat-model perspective, thatโs a honeypot.
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