South Korea loses millions of seized Bitcoin to phishing scam: Report

Authorities successful South Korea person launched an probe aft millions of dollars worthy of Bitcoin seized successful a transgression lawsuit was reportedly stolen.

Officials with the Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office discovered that astir 70 cardinal won ($47.7 million) worthy of Bitcoin (BTC) crypto was missing during a regular inspection of seized fiscal assets, according to section media reports connected Thursday.

The Chosun Daily reported that the Bitcoin was stolen aft a password was leaked externally, with a prosecutor’s bureau authoritative saying a phishing attack was to blasted aft an bureau idiosyncratic accessed a scam website.

Phishing is simply a communal onslaught successful crypto, wherever attackers look to summation entree to a wallet by spoofing morganatic websites oregon emails to instrumentality crypto users into sharing their backstage keys.

A phishing onslaught typically involves an attacker sending retired a wide email oregon connection to imaginable victims. Source: Cointelegraph 

Scam Sniffer reported earlier this period that crypto losses tied to phishing attacks declined by implicit 80% successful 2025, with losses falling to $83.85 million, portion the fig of victims besides declined by astir 70% to 106,000.

As crypto adoption grows, assorted instrumentality enforcement agencies astir the satellite are confiscating and holding ample amounts of tokens; however, the custody method utilized is often not disclosed.

South Korea to analyse Bitcoin theft

The prosecutors’ bureau reportedly declined to disclose the magnitude mislaid oregon erstwhile the Bitcoin was seized, citing an ongoing investigation. Cointelegraph contacted the prosecutors’ bureau for comment.

“We are conducting an probe to way the circumstances and whereabouts of the seized items,” a prosecution authoritative told Yonhap News. “We cannot corroborate circumstantial details.”

The theft comes aft South Korean customs authorities dismantled a large crypto laundering web connected Monday.  

Related: South Korea weighs ending one-bank regularisation for crypto exchanges: Report

Law enforcement holding billions successful crypto

South Korean authorities aren’t the lone agencies with ample crypto stashes. In June past year, US crypto speech Coinbase announced that it helped theUS Secret Service prehend $225 cardinal successful crypto allegedly stolen by scammers, the agency’s largest crypto seizure.

Meanwhile, UK authorities were mulling successful October past twelvemonth whether to support $6.4 cardinal successful seized Bitcoin alternatively of compensating fraud victims. The Bitcoin was seized successful 2018 from scammers who defrauded 128,000 investors successful China. 

Magazine: How crypto laws changed successful 2025 — and however they’ll alteration successful 2026