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Many crypto businesses CEOs or founders are reported to use personal bodyguard services these days.
The wise words “keep your private keys safe” is no longer enough for many public figures in the crypto sphere. With the many reported incidents on the crime against a number crypto millionaires and CEOs these days, many of them now live according to the “keep yourself safe” wisdom.
Among them is Tadas Kasputis, the founder of CoinStruction and crypto exchange, ExMarkets. The man decided to hire personal bodyguards after being kidnapped by a group of people in his hometown, Kaunas, Lithuania back in 2015.
“They came out of nowhere, pushed me into a van and drove around town trying to get me to tell them my bitcoin wallet passwords,” he said.
Ever since, Kasputis “decided to put extra security measures to protect me and my family”, without specifying the amount he spent for personal security services.
“That was the only time it happened, but it was enough,” he added.
Anthony Di Iorio, the co-founder of Ethereum is another renowned figure who can be seen using bodyguards. “Being my own bank, there are consequences — I’m at risk,” he said in an interview.
His fellow founder, Vitalik Buterin, however, doesn’t appear to follow his step, as Buterin is never seen to have "extra people" with him while attending events, according to Cointelegraph.
Charlie Lee, on the other hand, has John Kim, who acts as his personal body guard as well as an evangelist for Litecoin.
Another less-popular figure, such as Jeff Berwick admitted that he uses personal security services, despite being a trained fighter and armed.
“For my entire life I've deemed it my own duty to supply protection to myself and my family. I always utilize private security services in one way or another. I would never, under any circumstance, leave my security up to a centrally planned, communist style, bureaucratic and slow, dog killing, kidnapping and extortion racket like government police,” he elaborated.
According to Berwick, the most dangerous place in the world for crypto public figure like him is not Eastern Europe, but the United States.
“The most dangerous place in the world, in my opinion, is the US. Nearly everyone in the US gets extorted for half the money they make every year and are extorted on thousands of other items as well. When not being extorted they live in the world's largest police state where most people at one point or another are kidnapped and thrown into rape camps [prisons]. I try to avoid going to the US for this reason,” Berwick said.
Having said that, several incidents in the past have hinted that the use of bodyguards were somewhat correlated with fraudulent crypto businesses.
In June last year, Skycoin’s CEO, Synth was assaulted and robbed in his home by his own marketing team.
Read more: Skycoin team allegedly take their own CEO hostage
For those unfamiliar with the topic, Skycoin had been accused of being a scam by several parties.
Read more: VIDEO: Skycoin CEO Synth does live stream to explain drama
One month earlier, MasBitcoin CEO’s bodyguards were shot in Mexico, after the company was shut down on March 2018 following a Ponzi scheme accusation. The perpetrators were said to be the people close to Jorge Sanchez, the CEO.
Another example is Josh Garza, the CEO of GAW miners who’s now in jail for defrauding his clients. Back when he was still active, he can be seen attending conferences with two bodyguards watching him closely.
While the direct correlation is still unclear, some people argued that the crypto public figures who ran fraudulent businesses might feel the need to have personal bodyguards bigger than those running legitimate ones.
That said, it doesn’t mean that those hiring bodyguards are not having legitimate businesses. It could be just a precautious step reflecting to what happens to their fellow CEOs or founders these days.