Seoul police report 22 BTC vanished from station cold wallet during custody audit

South Korean authorities conducting a nationwide review of how seized cryptocurrencies are stored discovered that 22 Bitcoin previously surrendered to a Gangnam police station in November 2021 have been transferred out of official custody. The tokens cannot be located on the station’s hardware (cold) wallet; investigators say blockchain records show the funds moved to external addresses while the physical device stayed at the station. Valued at roughly $1.5 million at current market rates, the missing coins were flagged during the National Police Agency’s audit, which was launched after an earlier high-profile loss of 320 BTC from the Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office in mid-2025. The Gyeonggi Northern Provincial Police Agency has opened an inquiry to determine how the transfer occurred and who may be responsible; the original criminal case tied to the seized assets is currently suspended pending results. Forensic blockchain tracing can map the subsequent movement of the coins, but practical recovery typically requires cooperation from exchanges or legal seizure of recipient accounts. Investigators are expected to examine technical and operational failures such as weak key-management practices, single-signature custody, possible insider access, or compromised credentials. The incident underlines a gap between legal authority to confiscate digital assets — reinforced by a recent Supreme Court interpretation allowing Bitcoin to be treated as a seizure object under the Criminal Procedure Act — and the technical controls needed to preserve and secure those assets. The discovery also comes as other enforcement bodies tighten scrutiny of crypto-related flows: separate customs-led actions have exposed large-scale laundering techniques that convert crypto into won through domestic banking channels, underscoring the broader challenges authorities face in tracking and securing crypto value. Together, these episodes are increasing pressure on law enforcement and regulators to adopt standardized, hardened custody frameworks — including multi-signature arrangements, hardware security modules, independent custodianship, stronger inter-agency intelligence sharing, and clearer chain-of-custody protocols — to prevent further losses and sustain public trust in the handling of digital-evidence assets.