The post Russian police arrest crypto exchange robber armed with fake grenade appeared com. Russian authorities have detained a young man who tried to rob a cryptocurrency exchange by threatening its staff with smoke and airsoft grenades. The attack comes amid rising numbers of criminal cases targeting crypto holdings and their owners, including through kidnappings and killings. Russian police arrest crypto robber in St. Petersburg A resident of Russia’s Leningrad Region has been arrested in St. Petersburg after attempting to rob a crypto exchange office at an apartment hotel. Local police said the attack took place late on Saturday, in the building located on Khersonskaya Street of the country’s second-largest city. The crypto robbery was prevented by officers who arrived at the scene after receiving a report about a noisy conflict that evening. The 21-year-old attacker used strikeball and smoke grenades, the regional department of the interior ministry detailed in a press release, quoted by Fontanka. ru, Gazeta. ru and other Russian media on Sunday. The man entered the office of the coin exchange service, detonated two of the airsoft grenades, and ignited the smoke bomb. Then, he demanded that the employees of the crypto trading platform transfer its cryptocurrency funds to a wallet of his own. The failed robber was apprehended with the help of servicemen from Russia’s National Guard, who came to the aid of the policemen. Bomb disposal specialists who inspected the area confirmed that the devices used in the attack were in fact airsoft replicas that create a lot of noise and smoke without causing serious damage. Another two of those were seized from the perpetrator. Russian authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the attempted robbery and a decision on whether the man should remain in pretrial detention is under consideration. Crimes targeting cryptocurrency are on the rise in Russia Cases in which criminals try to take hold of victims’ cryptocurrency.