South Korea Police Agency Sets First-Ever Dark Coin Management Guidelines, Virtual Assets Compressed by Approximately 54.5 Billion Korean Won Over Past 5 Years

Gate News: On March 17, the Korean National Police Agency recently completed a draft regulation on virtual asset compression management. For the first time, guidelines related to “Dark Coins” (highly anonymous virtual currencies) have been incorporated into the regulations, and management plans for software wallets (hot wallets) have been clarified. Dark Coins have been used in criminal cases such as the “N Room” incident and North Korean money laundering activities due to their difficulty in tracing transactions. Data shows that the virtual assets compressed by Korean police over the past five years are estimated to be worth approximately 54.5 billion KRW based on the market price at the time, including about 50.7 billion KRW in Bitcoin and around 1.8 billion KRW in Ethereum. Additionally, the police plan to complete the selection of private custody institutions within the first half of the year. However, three previous tenders failed due to issues such as a budget of only 83 million KRW and the small scale of qualified institutions. Experts recommend establishing a government-led, professional unified custody system to prevent security vulnerabilities and internal risks.