The loss was discovered during an audit initiated after a separate 320 Bitcoin custody breach. This development has raised new questions about how authorities handle digital assets.
According to local news reports, South Korean police are looking into the disappearance of 22 Bitcoin from a cold wallet at a police station in Seoul. The Bitcoin was taken in a 2021 case.
The Gangnam Police Station had 22 Bitcoin (BTC $67,225), which is worth nearly $1.5 million at current prices. They were found to be missing during a statewide audit of how digital assets are kept safe, according to the Seoul Economic Times on Friday.
Authorities said that the 22 Bitcoin were sent to another location, but the cold wallet where the tokens were kept was not taken.
The probe comes after another instance at the Gwangju District Prosecutor’s Office in which 320 BTC, worth roughly $21.3 million at current values, went missing in August 2025. In that case, the prosecutors said a leaked password was part of a phishing attack.
People are looking closely at the incidents because they raise questions about how well the government can handle seized Bitcoin and how well they keep digital assets safe.
Nationwide review of seized digital assets
It is said that the National Police Agency started looking into all the bitcoin that had been seized across the country after the 320 Bitcoin case. During the review, officials found out that the 22 Bitcoin that had been given to the Gangnam station in November 2021 were no longer in their possession.
Authorities were given the 22 Bitcoin voluntarily during an inquiry in November 2021. The case is now on hold with no clear end in sight since the BTC went missing.
The Gyeonggi Northern Provincial Police Agency is looking into the details of the Bitcoin transfer and who might have been involved.
The Supreme Court of South Korea declared in January that investigators could seize bitcoins stored on centralised exchanges.
Because Bitcoin is electronic information that can be managed, traded, and has economic worth on its own, it is now an “object of seizure” under the Criminal Procedure Act.
The verdict means that Korean customers who maintain their Bitcoin on exchanges may have their holdings frozen if they are related to criminal cases.