South Korea orders cross-agency probe after repeated crypto custody failures

Deputy Prime Minister Koo Yun-cheol ordered an inter-agency review of seized crypto wallets after the National Tax Service exposed a seed phrase in a press release.

South Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, Koo Yun-cheol, announced a cross-agency sweep of how the government and public institutions handle seized digital assets after the National Tax Service (NTS) accidentally leaked a wallet seed phrase in a press release photo on Thursday. 

Officials published an image of a hardware wallet showing the full recovery phrase. Authorities lost roughly 4 million Pre-Retogeum (PRTG) tokens worth about 6 billion won ($4.8 million) from a confiscated wallet as a result.

In a post on X, Yun-cheol said that the government, alongside the Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service, would review the status and management of all digital assets seized from delinquent taxpayers and “promptly” strengthen security controls.

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