South Korea’s National Tax Service inadvertently published the seed phrases of three cryptocurrency wallets, resulting in the theft of 4 million PRTG tokens valued at approximately $4.8 million, according to local media reports.
The agency released an official press statement featuring images of confiscated Ledger hardware devices used for storing digital assets, along with their mnemonic phrases on paper.
Assistant Professor Jewoo Cho from the Blockchain Research Centre at Hansung University noted that a perpetrator exploited the information and transferred the assets to their own Ethereum address.
“Revealing a critical mnemonic rule in a press release for public viewing is akin to an advertisement inviting people to take your money. The tax authorities’ lack of basic understanding of virtual assets prevented the recovery of billions of won in state funds,” the expert stated.
According to CoinGecko, the price of PRTG even rose from $1.2 to $1.23 within a day. The analytical service provides no data on the token’s market supply and capitalization. The only market listed is the MEXC exchange, with a trading volume of $338 over the past 24 hours.
One commentator noted that the wallet accumulating the tokens received funds from the Bithumb, Bittrex, and Korbit exchanges. It is possible that user verification data on these platforms could help identify the individual.
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이 지갑주소 빗썸에서 돈받은내역있는 지갑이네요 ㄷㄷ pic.twitter.com/7MdIlIKMjh
— zin (@periagoge1) February 27, 2026
A Harsh Lesson for Korean Authorities
In January, prosecutors in Gwangju district launched an investigation into the disappearance of bitcoins worth $47.7 million. The missing coins were discovered during a routine audit of confiscated assets.
In February, a hacker voluntarily returned all 320.8 BTC to the agency. The perpetrator was unable to withdraw the funds as law enforcement had managed to freeze them on an undisclosed centralized exchange.
That same month, authorities opened an investigation into the disappearance of 22 BTC, seized in 2021. The coins were stored in a cold wallet at a police station in Gangnam, Seoul.
The absence of bitcoins was uncovered during a nationwide audit of seized digital assets. The inspections began following the incident at the Gwangju prosecutor’s office.
Earlier, the Korean financial regulator initiated an investigation against the Bithumb exchange regarding the erroneous crediting of 620,000 BTC to users.
