The Korean National Police Agency has established cryptocurrency management guidelines for the first time, compressing the market value of virtual assets by approximately 54.5 billion won over the past five years

According to Asia Economic Report, the Korean National Police Agency recently completed a draft directive for the management of compressed virtual assets, which for the first time includes management guidelines related to "dark coins" (highly anonymous virtual currencies) and clarifies the management plan for software wallets (hot wallets). Dark coins have been difficult to trace in transactions and have been used in criminal cases such as the "Room N" case and money laundering activities in North Korea. It is reported that the virtual assets compressed by the Korean police over the past five years are estimated to be about 54.5 billion won at current market prices, of which Bitcoin accounts for about 50.7 billion won and Ethereum about 1.8 billion won.

In addition, the police agency plans to complete the selection of private custodial institutions within the first half of the year, but the previous three bidding attempts failed due to issues such as a budget of only 83 million won and the small scale of qualified institutions. Experts suggest establishing a government-led professional unified custodial system to prevent security vulnerabilities and internal risks.