{"id":23928,"date":"2026-03-17T09:52:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/south-korea-tightens-crypto-seizure-rules-after-several-mishaps\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T09:52:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:52:29","slug":"south-korea-tightens-crypto-seizure-rules-after-several-mishaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/south-korea-tightens-crypto-seizure-rules-after-several-mishaps\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea tightens crypto seizure rules after several mishaps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-detail__content blocks\">\n<p>South Korea\u2019s National Police Agency has introduced new guidelines for handling seized cryptocurrencies after multiple security lapses.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cn-block-summary-block_6608a8f3a243eb26cdeb0264f30f10e6\" class=\"cn-block-summary\">\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__nav tabs\">\n        <span class=\"tabs__item is-selected\">Summary<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>South Korea\u2019s National Police Agency has drafted new guidelines to standardize how seized cryptocurrencies are stored and managed, including provisions for privacy-focused assets.<\/li>\n<li>The move follows a series of security lapses, including lost Bitcoin linked to custody failures.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .cn-block-summary --><\/p>\n<p>The KNPA has drafted a directive outlining compliance requirements across multiple stages of crypto seizure, storage, and management, local media outlet Asiae <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.asiae.co.kr\/article\/2026031702455599002\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">reported<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the measures, law enforcement would have to follow standardized procedures for managing wallet addresses, private keys, and software wallets, including specific provisions for handling privacy-focused assets that cannot be easily stored in hardware wallets.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the past, seized assets were stored in warehouses. Now we must manage wallet addresses and private keys,\u201d a police spokesperson said in an accompanying statement.<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Regulatory pressures mount after major security lapses<\/h1>\n<p>Last month, South Korea\u2019s finance minister Koo said the government, alongside the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, would conduct a full inspection of digital assets held by public institutions and review how they are managed under enforcement processes.<\/p>\n<p>Comments from the minister followed back-to-back security incidents that exposed weaknesses in custody practices across agencies.<\/p>\n<p>In one case, Bitcoin seized in 2021 was lost after authorities relied on a third-party custodian without maintaining control over private keys, with the issue only coming to light following an internal probe.<\/p>\n<p>Police arrested two suspects related to the theft of Bitcoin from wallets linked to seized assets, further underscoring gaps in internal controls.<\/p>\n<p>A separate incident led to the Gwangju District Prosecutors\u2019 Office losing roughly 70 billion won, about $48 million, in seized Bitcoin due to a phishing attack that exposed login credentials and enabled unauthorized transfers from a state-controlled wallet.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Korea\u2019s National Police Agency has introduced new guidelines for handling seized cryptocurrencies after multiple security lapses. Summary South Korea\u2019s National Police Agency has drafted new guidelines to standardize how&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23930,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23928\/revisions\/23930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}