The Taihuttus on a ski trip to Sierra Nevada in southern Spain. They sold everything they owned in 2017 to bet on bitcoin — and now travel full-time as a family of five.
Didi Taihuttu
A wave of high-profile kidnappings targeting cryptocurrency executives has rattled the industry — and prompted a quiet security revolution among some of its most visible evangelists.
Didi Taihuttu, patriarch of the so-called “Bitcoin Family,” said he overhauled the family’s entire security setup after a string of threats.
The Taihuttus — who sold everything they owned in 2017, from their house to their shoes, to go all-in on bitcoin when it was trading around $900 — have long lived on the outer edge of crypto ideology. They travel full-time with their three daughters and remain entirely unbanked.
Over the past eight months, he said, the family ditched hardware wallets in favor of a hybrid system: Part analog, part digital, with seed phrases encrypted, split, and stored either through blockchain-based encryption services or hidden across four continents.
“We have changed everything,” Taihuttu told CNBC on a call from Phuket, Thailand. “Even if someone held me at gunpoint, I can’t give them more than what’s on my wallet on my phone. And that’s not a lot.”
CNBC first reported on the family’s unconventional storage system in 2022, when Taihuttu described hiding hardware wallets across multiple continents — in places ranging from rental apartments in Europe to self-storage units in South America.
The Taihuttu family dressed up for Halloween in Phuket, Thailand, where they recently moved homes after receiving disturbing messages pinpointing their location from YouTube videos.
Didi Taihuttu
As physical attacks on crypto holders become more frequent, even they are rethinking their exposure.
This week, Moroccan police arrested a 24-year-old suspected of orchestrating a series of brutal kidnappings targeting crypto executives.
One victim, the father of a crypto millionaire, was allegedly held for days in a house south of Paris — and reportedly had a finger severed during the ordeal.
In a separate case earlier this year, a co-founder of French wallet firm Ledger and his wife were abducted from their home in central France in a ransom scheme that also targeted another Ledger executive.
Last month in New York, authorities said, a 28-year-old Italian tourist was kidnapped and tortured for 17 days in a Manhattan apartment by attackers trying to extract his bitcoin password — shocking him with wires, beating him with a gun, and strapping an Apple AirTag around his neck to track his movements.
The common thread: The pursuit of crypto credentials that enable instant, irreversible transfers of virtual assets.
“It is definitely frightening to see a lot of these kidnappings happen,” said JP Richardson, CEO of crypto wallet company Exodus. He urged users to take security into their own hands by choosing self-custody, storing larger sums on hardware wallets, and — for those holding significant assets — exploring multi-signature wallets, a setup typically used by institutions.
Richardson also recommended spreading funds across different wallet types and avoiding large balances in hot wallets to reduce risk without sacrificing flexibility.
That rising sense of vulnerability is fueling a new demand for physical protection with insurance firms now racing to offer kidnap and ransom (K&R) policies tailored to crypto holders.
But Taihuttu isn’t waiting for corporate solutions. He’s opted for complete decentralization — of not just his finances, but his personal risk profile.
As the family prepares to return to Europe from Thailand, safety has become a constant topic of conversation.
“We’ve been talking about it a lot as a family,” Taihuttu said. “My kids read the news, too — especially that story in France, where the daughter of a CEO was almost kidnapped on the street.”
Now, he said, his daughters are asking difficult questions: What if someone tries to kidnap us? What’s the plan?
One of the steel plates the Taihuttu family uses to store part of their bitcoin seed phrase. Didi etched it by hand using a hammer and letter punch — part of a decentralized storage system spread across four continents.
Didi Taihuttu
Though the girls carry only small amounts of crypto in their personal wallets, the family has decided to avoid France entirely.
“We got a little bit famous in a niche market — but that niche is becoming a really big market now,” Taihuttu said. “And I think we’ll see more and more of these robberies. So yeah, we’re definitely going to skip France.”
Even in Thailand, Taihuttu recently stopped posting travel updates and filming at home after receiving disturbing messages from strangers who claimed to have identified his location from YouTube vlogs.
“We stayed in a very beautiful house for six months — then I started getting emails from people who figured out which house it was. They warned me to be careful, told me not to leave my kids alone,” he said. “So we moved. And now we don’t film anything at all.”
“It’s a strange world at the moment,” he said. “So we’re taking our own precautions — and when it comes to wallets, we’re now completely hardware wallet-less. We don’t use any hardware wallets anymore.”
To throw off would-be attackers, Didi Taihuttu encrypts select words from each 24-word seed phrase — then splits the phrases into four sets of six and hides them around the world.
Didi Taihuttu
The family’s new system involves splitting a single 24-word bitcoin seed phrase — the cryptographic key that unlocks access to their crypto holdings — into four sets of six words, each stored in a different geographic location. Some are kept digitally through blockchain-based encryption platforms, while others are etched by hand into fireproof steel plates using a hammer and letter punch, then hidden in physical locations across four continents.
“Even if someone finds 18 of the 24 words, they can’t do anything,” Taihuttu explained.
On top of that, he’s added a layer of personal encryption, swapping out select words to throw off would-be attackers. The method is simple, but effective.
“You only need to remember which ones you changed,” he said.
Part of the reason for ditching hardware wallets, Taihuttu said, was a growing mistrust of third-party devices. Concerns about backdoors and remote access features — including a controversial update by Ledger in 2023 — prompted the family to abandon physical hardware altogether in favor of encrypted paper and steel backups.
While the family still holds some crypto in “hot” wallets — for daily spending or to run their algorithmic trading strategy — those funds are protected by multi-signature approvals, which require multiple parties to sign off before a transaction can be executed.
The Taihuttus use Safe — formerly Gnosis Safe — for ether and other altcoins, and similarly layered setups for bitcoin stored on centralized platforms like Bybit.
Didi Taihuttu during a recent visit to Sierra Nevada, Spain. The family’s lifestyle — unbanked, nomadic, and all-in on bitcoin — makes them outliers even in the crypto world.
Didi Taihuttu
About 65% of the family’s crypto is locked in cold storage across four continents — a decentralized system Taihuttu prefers to centralized vaults like the Swiss Alps bunker used by Coinbase-owned Xapo. Those facilities may offer physical protection and inheritance services, but Taihuttu said they require too much trust.
“What happens if one of those companies goes bankrupt? Will I still have access?” he said. “You’re putting your capital back in someone else’s hands.”
Instead, Taihuttu holds his own keys — hidden across the globe. He can top up the wallets remotely with new deposits, but accessing them would require at least one international trip, depending on which fragments of the seed phrase are needed. The funds, he added, are intended as a long-term pension to be accessed only if bitcoin hits $1 million — a milestone he’s targeting for 2033.
The shift toward multiparty protections extends beyond just multi-signature. Multi-party computation, or MPC, is gaining traction as a more advanced security model.
Didi, Romaine, and their three daughters live largely off-grid, managing crypto through decentralized exchanges, algorithmic trading bots, and a globally distributed cold storage system.
Didi Taihuttu
Instead of storing private keys in one place — a vulnerability known as a “single point of compromise” — MPC splits a key into encrypted shares distributed across multiple parties. Transactions can only go through when a threshold number of those parties approve, sharply reducing the risk of theft or unauthorized access.
Multi-signature wallets require several parties to approve a transaction. MPC takes that further by cryptographically splitting the private key itself, ensuring that no single individual ever holds the full key — not even their own complete share.
The shift comes amid renewed scrutiny of centralized crypto platforms like Coinbase, which recently disclosed a data breach affecting tens of thousands of customers.
Taihuttu, for his part, says 80% of his trading now happens on decentralized exchanges like Apex — a peer-to-peer platform that allows users to set buy and sell orders without relinquishing custody of their funds, marking a return to crypto’s original ethos.
While he declined to reveal his total holdings, Taihuttu did share his goal for the current bull cycle: a $100 million net worth, with 60% still held in bitcoin. The rest is a mix of ether, layer-1 tokens like solana, link, sui, and a growing number of AI and education-focused startups — including his own platform offering blockchain and life-skills courses for kids.
Lately, he’s also considering stepping back from the spotlight.
“It’s really my passion to create content. It’s really what I love to do every day,” he said. “But if it’s not safe anymore for my daughters … I really need to think about them.”
Volvo’s long-time CEO, Håkan Samuelsson, is returning to help the brand and openly admits that the rapid electrification of the auto industry will result in a few Western automotive brands going out of business.
Samuelsson led Volvo from 2012 to 2022, when he retired on top after a successful public offering.
However, Volvo’s stock has been sliding since his exit, and he recently accepted a 2-year contract to lead Volvo again as the company tries to find a permanent new leader.
He gave an interview with Bloomberg this week, in which he stated that Volvo remains firmly committed to electrification despite some pullbacks.
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Samuelsson doesn’t mince his words. He understands that the EV transition is difficult on the industry and China’s forceful push toward electrification at a global scale is putting pressure on Western automakers.
He believes that the industry will be fully electric in about 10 years and that some brands won’t survive the transition:
The industry will be electric — there’s no turning back. It may take a bit longer in some regions, but the direction is clear. In (about) 10 years, cars will all be electric and they will be lower cost.
There will be new dominant players, exactly as Ford, GM, Toyota and Volkswagen were in the old world. In the new world, there will be two or three very strong Chinese brands. That makes the room for the old ones tougher. So this will trigger a (wave of) restructuring. Some companies will adapt to new circumstances and survive. Others will not.
He didn’t specify which ones he thinks will not survive, but he is hopeful Volvo will be among those that will remain.
The CEO is also encouraged by the connection with Geely, which has been making great progress in electrification and owns a majority stake in the Swedish automaker.
However, the connection is also causing Volvo some issues, as they have been threatened with a sales ban in the US due to their Chinese ownership.
Electrek’s Take
I think he is right. I’ve been saying it for years, but this is the kind of disruption that companies don’t survive.
It is a huge industry and it moves slowly, especially for some legacy automakers. When you have new startups, such as Tesla and Rivian, which are more nimble, it is genuinely disruptive.
And now that Chinese companies, with their incredible manufacturing pace, are getting involved, as seen with BYD and Xiaomi, it is putting a lot of pressure on existing players.
However, it’s still not clear which ones will and won’t survive.
I’d love to know your best guests of who you think won’t survive the EV transition in the comment section below.
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Construction on Hyundai’s electric vehicle battery site that was raided by ICE last week is now facing more setbacks. Hyundai is delaying work at the EV battery plant as the detained workers are expected to fly home on Thursday.
Hyundai is delaying its EV battery plant raided by ICE
During an interview on Thursday, Hyundai’s CEO José Muñoz announced the site will be delayed by at least a few months following the raid.
“This is going to give us minimum two to three months delay, because now all these people want to get back,” he said. Hyundai needs to fill the positions, and as Muñoz explained, “for the most part, those people are not in the US.”
The sudden announcement comes after federal agents raided the battery plant site on September 4, detaining 475 workers.
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Hyundai co-owns the plant with LG Energy Solutions, which is set to supply batteries to its nearby production site, the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA).
Although a charter plane is waiting in Atlanta to fly the workers home, the raid is already sparking backlash. South Korean ministry spokesperson Lee Jae-woong warned that “The economic activities of our companies investing in the US and the rights and interests of our nationals must not be unfairly violated.”
Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America EV plant (Source: Peter Johnson/ Electrek)
The raid occurred just days after South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met with President Trump at the White House, pledging to invest another $150 billion in the US, including a new EV battery plant.
However, after videos and images showed the detained workers shackled before being transferred onto buses, the operation is fueling outrage among South Koreans and will likely have bigger economic implications.
The new 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 at a Tesla Supercharger (Source: Hyundai)
Hyundai and LG’s battery plant is just one of 20 sites under construction in the US by a South Korean company. Several LG Energy Solutions’ construction sites have already been disrupted, while others fear similar crackdowns may follow.
Hyundai currently builds the new IONIQ 5 and larger IONIQ 9 electric SUVs at the production plant. The site in total spans about 3,000 acres, including the assembly facility, EV battery plants, and various other parts plants.
Electrek’s Take
The raid on Hyundai’s plant was frankly an embarrassment and will likely have much bigger impacts. Hyundai pledged to invest $12.6 billion in Georgia, creating 8,500 new jobs, marking the state’s largest economic project to date.
A Center for Automotive Research report found that Hyundai’s EV plant would generate over 50,000 new jobs indirectly, including suppliers and joint battery ventures.
Donald Trump has made it clear that he wants to arrest and deport as many “illegal” immigrants as possible, but he also wants to bring manufacturing back to the US.
The Hyundai plant raid is just another setback for the US auto industry. It has put thousands of new jobs and billions in investments at risk. It ultimately puts the US further behind China, South Korea, and others who are quickly emerging as powerhouses with advanced new batteries, software, and other EV tech.
Trump’s raid on the Hyundai plant could give a new meaning to the “Trump Slump” as fear spreads over similar crackdowns.
Save up to an exclusive $2,377 on Bluetti’s new expansive Apex 300 power station and bundles starting from $1,529
Bluetti is having an Anniversary Power Week Sale that is taking up to 53% off power stations, but it’s getting all the better for our readers who want to score the brand’s new Apex 300 power station or its bundles thanks to exclusive codes we’ve been provided. Things start with Bluetti’s base Apex 300 Portable Power Station at $1,529.10 shipped, after using the exclusive code 9TO5TOYS10F at checkout. This all-new backup solution only just hit the market last month with a $2,399 full price, which we saw dropped to $1,599 in launch savings, which dropped lower to $1,439 with exclusive discounts. It’s starting off this sale at $1,699, with the exclusive code providing $870 in total savings to land it at the second-best price we have tracked, if you missed out on the lower launch deals. Head below to learn more about this new model and browse the entire lineup of deals we’re seeing in this sale.
Before I go over the Bluetti Apex 300 station’s capabilities, I wanted to point out the bonus promotions we’re seeing during this sale. For this new model and its bundles below, members will score 3x Bluetti Bucks that can be used later to gain additional discounts and rewards. The entire sale also has some free gifts once your order reaches certain pricing thresholds, with $2,000 to $2,999 orders getting a free K5 Power Bank, $3,000 to $3,999 orders getting a free Handsfree 1 power station, and $4,000+ orders get a free Handsfree 2 power station.
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The new Bluetti Apex 300 power station is a beast of a backup power companion, starting with its 2,764.8Wh LiFePO4 capacity (which is rated for a 17-year lifespan by the brand) that can be expanded with further investments up to a monstrous 58kWh. It provides some serious output power too, starting at up to a steady 3,840W that surges to 7,680W and can expand with your setup to provide up to 11.52kW. What’s more, it has quite the UPS switchover time of 0ms whenever power goes out and you have devices/appliances/more connected.
It boasts a robust array of 13 output ports to cover your device/appliance connection needs, as well as the usual in-app smart controls you’d expect. Not only does it support passthrough charging (with a particular focus on generators), but it comes with a solid lineup of recharging methods for its own battery. You can plug it into a standard AC outlet, which can have it to 80% in 45 minutes with its Turbo mode activated, as well as use your car’s auxiliary port, connect a generator, or reach up to its max 2,400W solar input.
***Note: Make sure to use the exclusive code 9TO5TOYS10F at checkout to score these prices.
Bluetti’s Power Week Apex 300 power station deals:
Lectric’s Endless Summer Sale offers $424 in FREE gear with the 60-mile XPress 750 commuter e-bikes at $1,299, more
Lectric has launched its Endless Summer Sale that is offering up to $720 in savings on its lineup of e-bike bundles, which includes the ongoing $500 price cut on the ONE Premium commuter e-bike. Among the group, we spotted a notably large bundle being given to Lectric’s XPress 750 Long-Range Commuter e-bikes that are getting $424 in FREE gear at $1,299 shipped, in both its step-thru and step-over designs. This package would normally run you $1,723 without the bundle savings, which beats out all the bundles we’ve seen before that only ever amounted up to $410 in gear. Along with the e-bike (which is one of my favorite commuters over the years), you’ll be getting a rear cargo rack, fenders to go over both tires, an Elite headlight upgrade, a suspension seat post, two adjustable rear-view mirrors, and an accordion-style folding bike lock. Head below for more on this e-bike’s capabilities and the other deals we’re seeing while the sale lasts.
Aiper’s IrriSense smart irrigation system brings far-reaching, app-controlled functionality to your yard at its $500 low
By way of its official Amazon storefront, Aiper is offering a second chance to pick up its latest IrriSense Smart Sprinkler Irrigation System for $499.99 shipped, after clipping the on-page $200 off coupon, which matches the price we’re seeing directly from the brand’s website. It’s only been on the market since May, with it normally going for $700 outside of discounts, of which things have mostly dropped down to $600, except for the first-time fall to $500 we saw mid-August. Now that low price is coming back for round two, as $200 is cut from the tag for the best price we have tracked.
Save $202 on commercial-grade cutting power with Greenworks’ 82V 16-inch cordless chainsaw at a new $198 low
Amazon is now offering the best price yet on the Greenworks 82V Commercial-Grade 16-inch Cordless Chainsaw with a 4.0Ah battery and dual-port rapid charger at $198.11 shipped. This newer model has only been on the market since February and ranges between $300 and $400 on average, with regular periods spent down at the former. While there have been a few discounts under that rate, we’ve recently seen it cascading down in price since late August, with the 50% markdown here cutting $202 off the tag for the best new price we have tracked.
Enhance at-home or campsite outdoor gatherings with Solo Stove’s Mesa XL tabletop fire pit at $76
Through its official Amazon storefront, Solo Stove is offering its Mesa XL Tabletop Fire Pit for $76.40 shipped. This compact model usually runs for $120 outside of discounts, which we’ve mostly seen keeping the costs between $80 and $96 throughout the year, save for the one-time drop to the $76 low that popped up for a short period in late August. It’s coming in today within $1 of that low price, with the deal here cutting $44 off the tag for the next-best rate we have tracked.
Make up to 160 cuts with Worx’s Nitro 20V 5-inch mini chainsaw at its $100 annual low (Today only)
As part of its Deals of the Day, Best Buy is offering the Worx Nitro 20V 5-inch Cordless Mini Chainsaw at $99.99 shipped, which beats out the current Amazon pricing by $48. This handy tool would normally run you $150 at full price, which we’ve mostly seen dropping to $109, with occasional dips lower to $100 and the $99 low. While we haven’t seen that low price again since Christmas sales, you’re looking at the next-best rate here for the rest of the day only, cutting $50 off the tag to land $1 above that low.
For the rest of the day snag Greenworks’ 80V 17-inch cordless string trimmer at $180
As part of its Deals of the Day, Best Buy is offering the Greenworks 80V 17-inch Cordless String Trimmer with 2.0Ah battery at $179.99 shipped, which you’ll only find in a renewed condition directly from the brand’s website right now, matching the price of this brand-new model, while it’s unavailable on Amazon. It normally goes for $250 at full price, which has mostly been taken down to this same rate, save for the one-time fall to its $171 low we spotted at the top of August. You’re getting the next-best price here for the rest of the day though, which saves you $70 and lands just $9 higher than its lowest tracked rate.
The savings this week are also continuing to a collection of other markdowns. To the same tune as the offers above, these all help you take a more energy-conscious approach to your routine. Winter means you can lock in even better off-season price cuts on electric tools for the lawn while saving on EVs and tons of other gear.