South Korea Recovers $21M in Bitcoin After Hacker Returns Funds
South Korean prosecutors said they regained control of roughly 320.88 Bitcoin after the coins were unexpectedly transferred back to a government-controlled wallet, following a breach that saw the assets removed from official custody last year [1][3].
The Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office valued the returned coins at about 21.4 billion won (roughly $21 million) and said the holdings had originally been seized from a gambling platform; reporting indicates the breach involved phishing that compromised assets under official custody [2][1].
Although the funds were returned, authorities said the investigation and hunt for the individual or group responsible is ongoing as prosecutors work to trace the incident and identify the hacker [3][1].
Authorities have recovered the stolen Bitcoin, but the criminal investigation and efforts to locate and prosecute those responsible continue [2].
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Citations
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- 1South Korea Recovers $21M In Bitcoin After Hack, Hunt For Hacker ContinuesYellow• Feb 19, 2026
- 2South Korean Prosecutors Recover $21M in Stolen Bitcoin After Hacker Returns FundsETHNews• Feb 19, 2026
- 3Hacker returns $21M in Bitcoin stolen from South Korean authorities: ReportCointelegraph• Feb 19, 2026
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