The South Korean police and the prosecutor's office have quadrupled spending on tools for surveillance of crypto assets over the past year.
Last year, the law enforcement agencies of the Republic of Korea spent about $2.4 million on software for monitoring crypto transactions and training employees in the supervision of digital assets. In 2020, these expenses amounted to $653,000. The increase in the cost of tracking cryptocurrencies is due to the fact that police across the country are forming specialized units for crypto navigation. These controls use tools to track transactions and user IP addresses.
According to the National Police Agency (NPA), 1,174 of the 3,033 drug offenders arrested by police between March and May used cryptocurrency to buy or sell drugs. This is 32% more than in the same months of 2021. It is known that the NPA has acquired cryptocurrency tracking systems for its National Investigation Headquarters, the Drug and Organized Crime Investigation Department, as well as the department for combating economic crimes.
The Supreme Prosecutor's Office, the Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office and the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutor's Office have bought cryptocurrency tracking solutions. Additional expenses were required to investigate the work of the Terra project ecosystem and find out the role that Terraform Labs could have played in the incident. In addition, the police spend a lot of money to prevent hacker attacks by North Korea on local crypto companies.
The South Korean Financial Services Commission (FSC) has warned that it is going to monitor investors' transactions with crypto assets of more than 100 million won ($70,000).
