South Korean Government Agency Reveals Ledger Recovery Phrase – $4.8M Immediately Moved

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On 27th February, a press release by South Korea’s National Tax Service (NTS) revealed the recovery phrase of a seized cryptocurrency wallet. The wallet, which was a hardware wallet made by the company Ledger, held $4.8 million worth of Pre-Retogeum (PRTG) tokens. 

The press release contained an image of the USB device with a notebook containing the recovery phrase sitting next to it. The recovery phrase would enable anyone to restore and control the wallet’s funds. 

Here is the image from the press release: 

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Using the Arkham Intel Platform, it is possible to pinpoint the exact transactions which occurred after the recovery phrase was made public. Here’s how to find the transactions: 

1. Go to the Arkham Intel Platform
2. Search for ‘PRTG’ in the search bar at the top of the page
3. Click on the result for Pre-Retogeum
4. Go to the ‘TRANSFERS’ section of the page in the bottom right corner (on desktop)
5. Click on the filter icon next to the word ‘VALUE’ 
6. In the input box underneath ‘FROM’ type in 1,000,000
7. Click Enter

Once these steps are completed, you should be left with a list of recent transactions. The transfers which occurred on 27th February are the ones you should look out for.

These are the three addresses which were affected: 

• 0xFb5A2208B9eCCFAcd4e06AC3F2981795b496c7e5
• 0xffB929C83865B4c4B527e98D358852492dEA92a1
• 0x8EFa52827C229c434fe9C915B2D99841Aa3E114D

The screenshot below shows the transaction details for one of these: 

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This blunder from a South Korean government agency comes soon after another story involving South Korea where 320 BTC, worth $21 million was stolen from a government wallet before eventually being returned by the thief after significant pressure from South Korean authorities. We covered the story here. 

These mishaps have prompted the South Korean Deputy Prime Minister to initiate a review into the handling of digital assets by South Korean government agencies. 

Koo Yun-cheol, who is also the Minister of Finance, said in a translated post on X that “the government will, together with relevant agencies such as the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, inspect the status and management of digital assets held by government and public institutions through seizures from delinquent taxpayers."