PANews reported on May 20 that according to Bitcoin.com, Festo Ivaibi, founder of Mitroplus Labs, a blockchain education institution in Uganda, was kidnapped by an armed criminal gang on May 17. The criminals disguised themselves as security personnel and held Ivaibi hostage near his residence, demanding $500,000 and access to the cryptocurrency wallet. After the kidnappers succeeded, they abandoned the victim and sold the Meme coin Afro issued by Mitroplus Labs, causing the price of the token to fall briefly. At present, the Uganda Revenue Authority has opened the police command center to Ivaibi to retrieve surveillance footage to assist in the investigation. Mitroplus Labs’ statement emphasized that community funds were not affected in this incident. As a registered cryptocurrency trader, Ivaibi regularly declares and pays taxes to the tax department.

Ivaibi revealed that 48 similar cases have occurred in Uganda, 7 of which involved the same criminal gang. Since the country has not yet recognized the legal status of cryptocurrencies, the police have mostly refused to file cases on the grounds of "unregulated personal risks." It is worth noting that shortly before this incident, the daughter of the CEO of a Paris exchange in France also suffered an attempted kidnapping, prompting the French government to announce that it would strengthen protection measures for crypto practitioners.