A recent list published on GitHub documents over 100 physical attacks against Bitcoin holders or infrastructure facilitating BTC transactions, dating back to 2014. The first recorded attack was on Hal Finney in 2014, who was a supporter of Bitcoin and in contact with its mysterious founder, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Finney was "SWATed" after months of online harassment, where the attacker reported a false crime to the police. The digital nature of cryptocurrencies means coin holders must approve a transaction using their private keys, and the transparent nature of crypto transactions can help trace stolen assets.