A young Ukrainian student was brutally tortured and set on fire in Vienna after attackers forced him to reveal passwords to his cryptocurrency accounts, draining his digital wallets before leaving him to die in his father’s luxury car.
The victim, 21-year-old Danylo K., son of Kharkiv’s deputy mayor, was discovered in the back seat of a charred Mercedes S 350D under the Ostbahn railway line in Vienna’s Donaustadt district, hours after a fire alarm alerted nearby residents around 12:30 a.m.
Investigators say the assault began in the underground parking of the Sofitel “SO/Vienna” hotel on Praterstraße.
A 19-year-old fellow student ambushed Danylo following a loud confrontation, prompting a hotel guest to alert reception.
Police later discovered a large pool of blood in the stairwell leading to the garage.
Danylo was beaten severely, his teeth knocked out, and then forced into his father’s black Mercedes.
The attackers drove him to a location in Donaustadt, continuing hours of torture to extract access to two cryptocurrency accounts.
After obtaining the wallet passwords, they doused him with gasoline purchased earlier from a Wagramer Strasse station and set him ablaze while he was crouched in the back seat.
Autopsy results confirmed that suffocation and severe burns covering 80% of his body were the primary causes of death.
Forensic teams recovered a melted gasoline canister from the vehicle.
Surveillance footage at the hotel garage and the gas station helped Vienna police identify two suspects: the 19-year-old student and a 45-year-old Ukrainian national.
The pair fled to Ukraine the following morning at 9:07 a.m., carrying large sums of cash believed to have come from converting the stolen crypto.
Ukrainian authorities arrested them on 29 November, three days after the murder.
Austrian authorities have since transferred the case to Ukraine, as extradition is not possible under existing agreements.
Authorities confirmed that Danylo’s cryptocurrency accounts were completely emptied, though the exact sum stolen has not been disclosed.
His family had reported him missing on 25 November after losing contact and noticing that his digital wallets had been drained.
At the time, Danylo was living in a luxury apartment in Vienna’s Triiiple Tower on the Danube Canal with his partner and their child.
Experts warn that violent attacks on crypto holders, known as “wrench attacks,” are on the rise globally.
Security researcher Jameson Lopp has documented over 60 such incidents in 2025 alone, a 169% increase since February and a 33% rise over 2024.
Europe accounts for more than 30% of these cases, with France reporting the highest number at 14.
High-value targets have included families and individuals in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Court records from British Columbia detailed a 2024 home invasion where attackers tortured a family and stole $1.6 million in crypto, while masked assailants in Oxford forced victims to transfer £1.1 million during a car ambush.
Redbord, an expert on digital asset security, said,
“This does not mean wrench attacks will become universal, but as crypto represents highly liquid, borderless value, physical targeting remains an attractive fallback method.”
Analysts note that as crypto security improves with hardware wallets and operational safeguards, criminals are increasingly turning to coercion rather than hacking.
Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov described the murder as “a human tragedy,” while leaving detailed comments to the victim’s family.
The city has been left in mourning for the deputy mayor’s son, who was studying abroad and had temporarily settled in Vienna.
The brutal killing, beginning in a hotel garage and ending in flames, highlights the growing physical risks faced by cryptocurrency holders worldwide.
Authorities continue to investigate, tracking the rapid conversion of stolen digital assets to cash and the methods used in this violent theft.
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