Waltio Breach: ShinyHunters Extort French Crypto Tax Platform After Stealing ~50,000 Records
French crypto tax service Waltio says hackers stole around 50,000 user records and demanded a ransom; French cyber authorities have opened an investigation.
French cryptocurrency tax platform Waltio disclosed a data breach affecting approximately 50,000 users after hackers demanded a ransom, the company said. The hacking collective ShinyHunters claims to have obtained customer emails and 2024 tax report data; Waltio CEO Pierre Morizot said the breach occurred on January 21 [1][3].
Waltio has filed a legal complaint following the incident, and local media reported the extortion attempt by ShinyHunters to leak the seized data if a ransom was not paid [3].
French authorities are investigating the breach: the Paris public prosecutor’s cybercrime unit ordered a preliminary investigation and the case has been assigned to France’s National Cyber Unit, according to official reports and coverage of the probe [2][4].
Investigations by Waltio and French cyber authorities are ongoing; officials and the company have not released additional technical details while the probe continues [1][2][4].
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Citations
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- 1Hackers Extort French Crypto Tax Platform After Stealing 50,000 User RecordsYellow• Jan 23, 2026
- 2French Police Probe Waltio Data Breach as France Warns of Crypto KidnappingsCoinspeaker• Jan 23, 2026
- 3French crypto tax firm targeted in ShinyHunters extortion attemptProtos• Jan 23, 2026
- 4French authorities investigate data breach of crypto tax platformCointelegraph• Jan 23, 2026
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