LONDON – Armed robbers have raided the house of a British virtual currencytrader, forcing him to transfer Bitcoins after tying up his wife andthreatening him with a gun, British media reported on Monday.
The robbery happened on January 22 at the couple’s home in the village ofMoulsford in southeast England, according to the Daily Mail, which said thecryptocurrency crime was the first of its kind.
Four robbers wearing balaclavas broke into the house of Danny Aston, 30,and his wife Amy Jay, 31.
A Thames Valley Police spokesman quoted by the Daily Telegraph said onlythat police were investigating an “aggravated burglary” in Moulsford lastweek and that the occupants of the house had been “threatened”.
According to company registry records, Aston and Jay are directors of AstonDigital Currencies, which specialises in managing virtual currencyportfolios.
The company was created in June 2017 at a time when Bitcoin was trading ataround 2,500 euros.
It has since risen sharply to a peak of 16,323 euros on December 17 beforefalling back below 10,000 euros.
No arrests have been made but the reports said that Aston may have beentargeted because of his high profile in the cryptocurrency community.
Using a pseudonym, Aston has carried out more than 100,000 transactionswith 16,375 partners.
Some of them referred to him online using his real name, which may have ledrobbers directly to him.
Bitcoin is a virtual currency created from computer code that allowsanonymous transactions. Unlike a real-world unit such as the US dollar oreuro, it has no central bank and is not backed by any government.