- Violent attacks on French crypto holders are on the rise.
- We should have the right to shoot illegal intruders, Ledger co-founder says.
- Larchevêque has close ties with pro-Bitcoin, far-right politician Sarah Knafo.
Crypto owners should be allowed to carry pistols and semi-automatic rifles to defend themselves against would-be thieves, says the Ledger co-founder and Bitcoin advocate Éric Larchevêque.
In his native France, citizens are only allowed to own these kinds of firearms if they have completed official safety training courses — and may only use them for sports shooting purposes.
Larchevêque, who is becoming increasingly politicised ahead of the 2027 presidential election, said crypto holders “should have the right to self-defence,” French newspaper Le Monde reported.
“We should be allowed to carry category [pistols and rifles] — real weapons,” he said. “If someone comes to your house, you should be able to shoot them and not go to prison.”
His calls come as police announced the arrest of another member of a violent gang suspected of kidnapping and mutilating his fellow Ledger co-founder David Balland.
It is the latest development after a wave of violent attacks against crypto influencers, investors and entrepreneurs swept across the world in general — and France in particular.
Traumatic experience
Larchevêque was at the centre of the Balland kidnapping crisis, which he told the newspaper began for him on January 21, 2025, when he received a video of Balland’s severed finger.
The kidnappers sent a chilling message, telling Larchevêque that the price for seeing his friend and former business partner alive again would be $11.5 million, paid in Bitcoin.
This traumatic experience has taken its toll on Larchevêque, Le Monde said, who has since hired a private security firm to protect himself and his family from would-be crypto kidnappers.
He is not the only one to do so. Security firms are increasingly providing their services and training to crypto entrepreneurs.
Larchevêque claimed that the attack had not convinced him to swap his crypto fortune for fiat currency, however.
“I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I were holding the fruit of my entire life’s work in euros,” he said.
Getting political
While Larchevêque has previously claimed he is not interested in entering the world of French politics, his comments on firearms echo those of the French far right.
The biggest far-right party in the country, the National Rally, favours relaxing French gun laws for police, but not private citizens.
However, other, more radical political figures have gone a step further.
These include 2022 presidential candidate Éric Zemmour, who has also courted the French crypto sector.
Zemmour, who is mulling another tilt at the presidency in 2027, has long advocated for French citizens’ rights to bear firearms.
Zemmour has also spoken about both Ledger and Larchevêque in glowing terms.
Larchevêque said he admired US President Donald Trump’s decision to embrace the crypto sector.
And he said he had “close ties” with Sarah Knafo, Zemmour’s closest political ally and a candidate for Mayor of Paris.
Last month, he invited Knafo, another prominent Bitcoin advocate, to speak on his increasingly political podcast.
But Larchevêque told the newspaper he does not align himself with any of the leading candidates for the French presidency.
He called himself a “moderate libertarian” and a “Mileiist,” a reference to the Argentinian President Javier Milei, whose short-lived promotion of a memecoin in 2025 recently came back to haunt him.
“For me, the far right and the far left are the same thing,” he said, dismissing both as “enemies of freedom.”
“For me to support a candidate in an election, they would really have to propose an extremely ambitious, radical program,” Larchevêque said. “And I doubt that will happen.”
Tim Alper is a News Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at tdalper@dlnews.com.
