South Korea's Police Agency Establishes First-Ever Guidelines for Dark Coin Management, Reducing Virtual Asset Market Value by Approximately 54.5 Billion Won Over Nearly 5 Years

ZkProver · 2026-03-17T03:31:11+00:00

South Korea's National Police Agency has completed a draft virtual asset management ordinance that includes guidance on privacy coin management for the first time and clarifies software wallet management schemes. The police have seized an estimated 54.5 billion Korean won in virtual assets over the past five years. The agency plans to select private custodian institutions within the first half of the year, with experts recommending the establishment of a government-led professional custody system.

ZkProver

2026-03-17 03:31:11

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According to ChainCatcher reports, the Korean National Police Agency recently completed a draft regulation on virtual asset compression management. For the first time, it incorporated management guidelines related to “dark coins” (highly anonymous virtual currencies) and clarified the management plan for software wallets (hot wallets). Dark coins, due to their difficulty in tracing transactions, have been used in crimes such as the “Nth Room” case and North Korea’s money laundering activities. It is reported that the virtual assets compressed by Korean police over the past five years are estimated to be worth approximately 54.5 billion KRW at the current market price, 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, unified professional custody system to prevent security vulnerabilities and internal risks.

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