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 accordance with a bit revealed by Chosun Ilbo, The Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Workplace introduced on March 10 that it had “bought all 320.8 Bitcoins at market value, 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 throughout the technique of transferring the seized Bitcoin to the nationwide treasury. They had been then recovered on February 18, when “the Bitcoins returned to an current pockets, the place the prosecutors managed the keys, with out their data”, as reported by Korean outlet Digital Asset.
From Phishing Fiasco To Excellent Restoration
The re-recovered Bitcoin had been liquidated on a home alternate and transformed into roughly ₩31 billion which have now been transferred to the Nationwide Treasury. Prosecutors stress they executed the sale progressively over 11 days, from February 24 to March 6, to keep away from disturbing the market value, 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 non-public 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 laborious query about whether or not governments, or at the very least 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 Court docket not too long ago ruling that bitcoin held on native exchanges will be legally handled as an “object of seizure” below the Prison Process Act.
For merchants, the Gwangju sale is one other reminder that legislation‑enforcement liquidations are actually a structural supply of BTC provide, and for policymakers, it underscores that seizing cash is just half the battle: securing them and exiting positions with out roiling markets is shortly changing into a brand new sort of sovereign market danger.
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