Mexican prosecutors stated that a homicide in the State of Mexico is linked to a Bitcoin cold wallet. The victims included Jonathan Meléndez, keyboardist of the band Camilo Séptimo, his pregnant wife, their 3-year-old daughter, and a domestic worker; the family’s 6-year-old son survived.
The prosecution stated that the target was a cold wallet.
According to prosecutors, the suspect entered Meléndez’s home in search of a cold wallet believed to contain millions of dollars in Bitcoin. Following the incident, local prosecutors focused their investigation on motives related to cryptocurrency assets.
A suspect had contact with the deceased.
The prosecution disclosed that the two suspects are Diego Sebastián and Gerardo. Under Mexico's criminal procedure privacy rules, the authorities have not disclosed their full surnames.
Prosecutors stated that Diego Sebastián had a business relationship with Meléndez, which he used to gain access to the victim’s residence. They also alleged that he offered to pay Gerardo 2 million pesos, approximately $118,000, to assist in acquiring the relevant crypto assets. Both individuals were arrested on September 2.
Cold wallets are difficult to protect against offline coercion.
Cold wallets do not directly store Bitcoin; instead, they store the private keys that control access to assets, commonly in the form of hardware wallets such as Ledger or Trezor. These tools reduce the risk of online attacks but cannot prevent holders from facing physical violence or coercion offline.
This case is not an isolated incident. In June of this year, two brothers in Texas pleaded guilty to a similar case. Prosecutors stated that the brothers held a family hostage in Minnesota for over eight hours at gunpoint and forced the victims to transfer over $8 million in crypto assets.