South Korea to Review Crypto Handling and Prevent Recurrence

TheNewsCryptoPublished on 2026-03-02Last updated on 2026-03-02

Abstract

South Korea's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol announced a government review of crypto handling and management practices following several high-profile failures. The review, to be conducted urgently with the Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service, aims to prevent recurrence of incidents like leaks from seized assets. This comes after the National Tax Service accidentally exposed a recovery phrase in a press photo, leading to the loss of $4.8 million in digital assets. Separately, exchange Bithumb mistakenly sent 620,000 BTC instead of won to customers during a promotion, though most funds were recovered. The state clarified it only holds crypto obtained through legal enforcement actions like criminal investigations or tax seizures.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy Koo Yun-cheol has announced on X that the government would review the way in which crypto is handled and managed. This comes after several failures exposed the weakness in the system. Review is expected to entail management of digital assets acquired through seizure or other measures.

South Korea on Crypto Handling

Koo took to X to share that the government of South Korea would be collaborating with the Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service. The objective is to inspect the practices of holding and managing digital assets acquired in any manner. The end goal is to develop and implement measures that prevent the recurrence of a leak incident.

The review is likely to happen on an urgent basis, given that the police and tax authorities reportedly mishandled digital assets that were confiscated. Koo, most importantly, has clarified that the state does not own digital assets except those which have been acquired through legal enforcement actions. This includes criminal investigations and/or unpaid taxes.

Earlier Mistake of the South Korean Tax Service

The South Korean tax service, National Tax Service, recently revealed a recovery phrase of a seized crypto wallet in a press release photo. This led to a transfer of digital assets worth approximately $4.8 million to an unidentified address. It shared in one of the materials that it had confiscated assets of around $5.6 million, or 8.1 billion won.

The value was drawn from the transfer of 4 million Pre-Retogeum (PRTG) tokens, with the incident dating back to the early morning of February 27, 2026. PRTG tokens were transferred in 3 different transactions, only after ETH was deposited to cover the gas fees.

For a quick reference, PRTG token is currently trading at $1.43, up by 6.7% over the last 24 hours.

Recovering BTC

Another incident shook the South Korean crypto market when Bithumb’s staff mistakenly sent 620,000 bitcoins to customers instead of 620,000 Korean won, which comes to slightly above $424. The incident happened during a promotional event, with $9 million worth of BTC reportedly recovered. The remaining tokens were last seen being tracked because customers had either withdrawn or sold the holdings before the incident was detected.

A total of 695 customers had qualified for the prize. BTC price currently stands at $66,119.88, down by 1% over the last 24 hours.

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