The Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Workplace bought off all of 320 (BTC) recovered from hackers and returned them to the nationwide treasury.
The Bitcoin Heist
In response to a bit printed by Chosun Ilbo, The Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Workplace introduced on March 10 that it had “bought all 320.8 Bitcoins at market worth, repatriating 31.5 billion gained to the nationwide treasury.” The Bitcoins had been initially seized from Ms. A, the daughter of operators of a ₩390 billion unlawful playing ring, regardless of being misplaced later through the means of transferring the seized Bitcoin to the nationwide treasury. They had been then recovered on February 18, when “the Bitcoins returned to an present pockets, the place the prosecutors managed the keys, with out their data”, as reported by Korean outlet Digital Asset.
From Phishing Fiasco To Good Restoration
The re-recovered Bitcoin had been liquidated on a home trade and transformed into roughly ₩31 billion which have now been transferred to the Nationwide Treasury. Prosecutors stress they executed the sale regularly over 11 days, from February 24 to March 6, to keep away from disturbing the market worth, whereas an inner probe into how the belongings had been misplaced within the first place continues to be ongoing
A Repeated Incident
This isn’t the primary time South Korea has a serious custody failure. On February, authorities by accident leaked personal keys in public paperwork, which led to the theft of 4 million tokens, roughly valued at $4.8 million. These repeated incident raises the evident onerous query about whether or not governments, or not less than SK’ authorities, are ready to safeguard digital belongings they confiscate.
It’s value noting that South Korea is quickly constructing a authorized and operational playbook for seized crypto, with the Supreme Courtroom just lately ruling that bitcoin held on native exchanges could be legally handled as an “object of seizure” underneath the Prison Process Act.
For merchants, the Gwangju sale is one other reminder that regulation‑enforcement liquidations are actually a structural supply of BTC provide, and for policymakers, it underscores that seizing cash is barely half the battle: securing them and exiting positions with out roiling markets is shortly turning into a brand new sort of sovereign market threat.
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