I just read something quite concerning about how South Korea is handling its confiscated digital assets. It turns out the National Tax Service made a monumental mistake: they accidentally leaked the recovery phrase of a seized wallet in a press release. That’s it. And the worst part is that almost immediately, around 4 million PRTG tokens disappeared from the wallet.

The irony is that although, in theory, those PRTG were worth about $4.8 million, the token’s actual liquidity is so limited that it was probably difficult to sell. Even so, someone accessed the funds. According to reports, a person came forward afterward saying they were the one who entered and that they returned the assets the next day. The authorities are still verifying that story.

But here’s what really bothers me: this isn’t an isolated incident. Since the beginning of the year, prosecutors and police have been reporting constant losses of cryptocurrencies under state custody. Recently, 22 BTC disappeared from a vault at the Gangnam police station. Losses in prosecutors’ offices. It’s a pattern that raises a lot of questions about whether we’re talking about incompetence or something more serious.

Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol announced that they will conduct an urgent review of custody protocols. They’re working with the Financial Services Commission to inspect how these public institutions are handling these digital assets. They promise to strengthen security and prevent this from happening again, but they didn’t provide specific details or concrete timelines.

What catches my attention is that a token like PRTG, exposed this way, points to a bigger problem: if even government agencies can’t properly protect confiscated assets, what trust can we have? This will definitely fuel the conversation about why many believe that decentralized custody—or self-custody—is safer than leaving your assets under state control.