Gwangju Prosecutor’s Office sold all 320 (BTC) recovered from hackers and returned it to the national treasury.
bitcoin heist
According to the Chosun Ilbo, the Gwangju Prosecutor’s Office announced on the 10th, “We sold all 320.8 Bitcoins at market price and returned 31.5 billion won to the national treasury.” The Bitcoin in question was initially confiscated from Mr. A, the daughter of the operator of an illegal gambling house worth 390 billion won, but was later lost in the process of transferring the confiscated Bitcoin to the national treasury. As South Korea’s Digital Asset reported, the bitcoins were recovered on February 18 when they were returned to an existing wallet where prosecutors had unknowingly controlled the keys.
From phishing failure to complete recovery
The recovered Bitcoin was liquidated on a domestic exchange and converted into approximately 31 billion won, which has now been transferred to the national treasury. The prosecution emphasized that the sale was carried out gradually over 11 days from February 24 to March 6 to avoid market disruption, and that an internal investigation was underway into the circumstances of the original asset loss.
a repeating event
This is not the first large-scale custody failure in Korea. Last February, authorities accidentally leaked the private keys of public documents, resulting in the theft of 4 million tokens worth roughly $4.8 million. These recurring incidents raise clear and difficult questions about whether the government, or at least the SK government, is prepared to protect seized digital assets.
It is noteworthy that Korea is rapidly building a legal and operational playbook for confiscated cryptocurrencies, with the Supreme Court recently ruling that Bitcoin stored in domestic exchanges can be legally treated as ‘subject to seizure’ under the Criminal Procedure Act.
For traders, the Gwangju sale is another reminder that law enforcement liquidations are now a structural source of BTC supply, and for policymakers, it highlights that confiscating coins is only half the battle. Acquiring coins and exiting positions without disrupting the market is quickly becoming a new kind of sovereign market risk.
BTC's price trends to the upside on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview
Cover image by ChatGPT, BTCUSD chart by Tradingview
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