Local police in a suburban area of Seoul has the authority to seize crypto so as to clear the balance of delinquent fines from traffic violations.


A South Korean town near Seoul has been with success in operating a pilot program that enables police to seize crypto from the exchange accounts of people with delinquent traffic fines.

Gunpo, a city of about 275,000 within the northwestern Gyeonggi province was chosen by the national government to execute the pilot program in 2022 which an Aug. 16 report from the JoongBoo Ilbo news outlet stated was the way to gather delinquent funds in an “untact," or contactless fashion.

The program appears to have been successful, at least within the first half of 2022, with Gunpo police achieving an 88% collection rate on traffic fines amounting to $668,000, putting the city on pace to immensely exceed its goal of chasing $759,000 in traffic fines by the end of the year.

However, the trial solely saw delinquent fines totaling far more than concerning $759 by a personal subject to crypto seizures by the police, whereas crypto seizures were only a measure taken if the funds within the individual's bank accounts have already been exhausted. 

Jungo Ilbo according that the fines collected through the primary half already exceed the total annual collections over each of the past three years.

The Korean crypto market is a remunerative one for law enforcement to extract fines from as it grew to $45.9 billion in 2021, although the report didn't state that crypto would be seized and sold to pay fines.

(BRIAN NEWAR, Cointelegraph.com, 2022)