Robbers steal $500,000 in cash from crypto trader in Hong Kong

Four unidentified men stole more than 3.5 million yuan ($500,000) from a cryptocurrency trader in Kwun Tong, Hong Kong on 18 January.

According to local news site Apple Daily, the robbers, who are apparently 20 to 30 years old, threatened an unnamed woman with knives and sticks. At the time, the victim completed trading crypto with another person who was posing as a buyer, in the upper floor of Wah Kai Centre.

The criminals also stole the woman’s iPhone and fled to a pickup van. She immediately used her second phone to contact her husband, who then called the police. Police said that the office where the trade took place was recently rented out and only had some furniture.

According to local news, the woman sold crypto to the buyer in three transactions. Local police said in a report that the victim was paid 3.5 million yuan in cash in 1000 yuan notes after using her iPhone to transfer 450,000 yuan in USDT Tether tokens to the “buyer.”

The woman’s uncle, who drove her to the building was apparently waiting for her downstairs. He claimed that before police arrived, he saw a group of men run out and drive off in a van.

Detectives from the Kwun Tong district are investigating the incident and are in search of the perpetrators. At press time, no arrests have been made yet. 

This would be the second crypto related robbery to take place this month in Hong Kong alone. On 4 January robbers stole $3 million yuan or $461,000 in Bitcoin from a trader in Chai Wan. The 37-year-old male victim met two buyers in a car before a group of six  men rushed to the scene and stole the money. The robbers later kicked the trader out of the car on Tai Tam Road and drove off.