Nancy Guthrie’s alleged abductor may have revealed a critical clue by giving a real bitcoin address in the ransom note.
Bezalel Eithan Raviv, the CEO and founder of Lionsgate Network — a crypto recovery service with expertise in Blockchain forensics — spoke with Page Six about how the criminal could be traced with the right resources.
“He showed his Achilles to everyone who understands blockchain forensics,” Raviv told Page Six Monday of Guthrie’s alleged abductor.
The ransom note reportedly demanded that $6 million in bitcoin be sent to a real bitcoin address in exchange for Nancy’s release.
“Whenever cyber criminals offer their wallet address is where they basically reveal themselves in many ways,” Raviv said.
With his own clients facing fraud, the Israeli tech entrepreneur explained that the strategy is to send a small amount to the crypto wallet to “see where it lands.”
“This is a very simple tactic among many that we utilize when we want to be able to intercept criminal network crypto assets,” he said, noting, “That’s from our perspective based on previous cases that have been incredibly successful.”
Raviv said there is a common misconception, amongst investigators and criminals, that cryptocurrency is untraceable.
“There’s a lot of conversations that are incredibly gooey around blockchain technology … Most people still, in 2026, do not believe you can trace crypto. And a lot of people in 2026 still believe you cannot recover crypto,” he said. “And these are all nonsense ideas because we have shifted so much.”
Raviv explained that there is data that can be scraped from “just one simple transaction,” which can yield plenty of information that would be beneficial to an investigation.
“This is exactly what blockchain forensics is all about — tracing the blocks that are generated with each and every transaction,” he said.
Raviv also believes the criminal may be relying on the ignorance of the investigators.
“I think the vulnerable point here for law enforcement is because of their lack of ability to understand crypto and blockchain, and this is why it’s taking longer than it should,” he said, noting that Guthrie has been missing for more than a week.
“We need to train our law enforcement agents with blockchain forensics and crypto, or find the right people to do the job,” he said.
Raviv explained that cryptocurrency can be sent to a wallet, but eventually, the criminal will want to “enjoy that money.”
“This is the beauty about crypto. Bigger picture, when you send crypto, you send a code. You don’t send a suitcase with cash that you can pay for gas, bills, clothes, food, right?
“You send a code to someone from one wallet to another wallet,” he continued. “You send a code, and you cannot eat off of code. You cannot buy things out of a code … If you want to cash them out, it has to be met with a crypto exchange.”
That exchange is where criminals can expose themselves, he shared.
Raviv also said that the amount of a $6 million ransom demand is “a very predictable figure.”
“If I were to take it to ChatGPT on a prompt and say, ‘If I were to do this and that, how much money will I request? It will be between 5 to 10 million USD,” he said. “These are the random requests from various historic cases.”
When asked whether he believes there is a possibility that Guthrie is still alive, Raviv, who has reached out to investigators to offer his services, told us he can only hope.
“I do hope that she will be able to come back to her family and loved ones and this nightmare should be over with,” he said.
Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mom was last seen alive on the evening of Jan. 31 after having dinner with family members. She was reported missing the next day.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that her home was being treated as a crime scene after determining that she was forced from her Tucson-area home against her will.
A DNA test confirmed last week that a trail of blood outside her home belonged to Nancy.
A ransom note from the purported kidnapper reportedly demanded that $6 million in bitcoin be sent to an address in exchange for Nancy’s return.
The note stated two deadlines, one for Feb. 5, and another for Monday, Feb. 9 at 5 p.m. local time.
Savannah shared a video on Saturday in which she offered to pay the ransom and begged for her mother to be returned.
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