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A 21-year-old Ukrainian student was tortured for hours and burned alive in Vienna after attackers forced him to surrender his cryptocurrency wallet passwords in what Austrian authorities are calling one of the country’s most brutal crypto-motivated murders.
Danylo K., the son of Kharkiv’s deputy mayor, was found dead in the back seat of a burned Mercedes on November 26 after two Ukrainian nationals allegedly ambushed, beat, and tortured him to access his digital assets before fleeing to Ukraine with the stolen funds.
Austrian authorities have confirmed that Danylo K., the son of Kharkiv’s deputy mayor, was murdered on November 26 after what they believe was a targeted assault motivated by crypto-related crime.
According to local reports, the 21-year-old was lured and ambushed by two Ukrainian nationals—one a 19-year-old fellow student, the other a 45-year-old man—who allegedly tortured him for hours to extract his crypto wallet passwords.
The men reportedly emptied two of his crypto accounts before setting him on fire in the back seat of his father’s Mercedes S 350D, which was later found burned beneath the Ostbahn railway line in Vienna’s Donaustadt district.
His remains were discovered shortly after 12:30 a.m., when fire alarms alerted nearby residents and emergency services.
Investigators say the attack began in the underground parking garage of the Sofitel “SO/Vienna” hotel, where the younger suspect ambushed Danylo after a heated confrontation. A hotel guest who heard the disturbance notified reception, leading staff to alert police. Passersby later noticed a pool of blood in the stairwell.
Police say Danylo suffered severe beatings as the suspects attempted to force him to reveal his crypto credentials. His teeth were knocked out during the prolonged assault.
After accessing his accounts, the attackers purchased gasoline from a nearby Wagramer Strasse station and doused him with fuel before burning him alive.
Colonel Gerhard Winkler of the State Criminal Police Office said autopsy results showed Danylo died from suffocation or heatstroke. “This is a human tragedy,” — Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov, in a brief statement acknowledging the loss while declining further comment.
For forensic teams, the melted gasoline canister found inside the vehicle served as one of the many indicators pointing to a deliberate killing linked to crypto-related crime.
Surveillance footage from the hotel garage and the fuel station helped Vienna police identify both suspects. Authorities say the pair crossed into Ukraine at precisely 9:07 a.m. the morning after the murder—an escape that triggered an international manhunt shaped by what investigators describe as another example of crypto-related crime spilling across borders.
On November 29, Ukrainian officials arrested the suspects and found them in possession of large quantities of U.S. dollars, believed to have been acquired after the stolen crypto was rapidly converted to cash.
Because extradition between Austria and Ukraine is not currently permitted under their legal agreements, the case has now been transferred to Ukrainian jurisdiction.
Authorities say Danylo’s family reported him missing on November 25 after losing contact with him and discovering that his crypto accounts had been drained. He had been living temporarily in a high-end apartment in Vienna’s Triiiple Tower with his partner and their child.
Security analysts say the Vienna murder reflects a dangerous escalation in physical assaults targeting cryptocurrency owners—a trend now widely recognized across the digital asset ecosystem as crypto-related crime. Security researcher Jameson Lopp has tracked more than 60 so-called “wrench attacks” in 2025 alone, representing a 169% rise since February and a 33% increase compared to the previous year.
France currently leads global incidents with 14 cases. Violent robberies involving crypto holders have also been reported in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and elsewhere.
Recent court records from British Columbia detail a 2024 home invasion in which attackers tortured a family and stole $1.6 million in crypto after demanding 200 Bitcoin. In Oxford, masked robbers forced victims to transfer £1.1 million in digital assets during a roadside ambush.
Analysts say rising crypto prices have made digital asset holders high-value targets, exposing a sharp increase in crypto-related crime that now spans continents.
The Vienna case, investigators warn, is likely to fuel urgent conversations among crypto investors, policymakers, and security experts about how to protect digital wealth in a world where crypto-related crime is increasingly tied to physical violence.
