The Korean National Tax Service plans to select a professional escrow company in the first half of the year to manage the seized virtual assets.

PANews reported on March 20th that, according to ZDNET, the South Korean National Tax Service plans to select a private escrow company within the first half of the year to manage seized virtual assets. This follows a February 26th incident where the National Tax Service leaked mnemonic phrases during the announcement of on-site searches of late taxpayers, leading to the theft of seized virtual assets twice. Therefore, the decision was made to shift asset custody from self-management to professional escrow. The National Tax Service will select escrow companies based on security requirements, company size, and whether they are insured under the Virtual Asset User Protection Act. The "Virtual Asset Management System Upgrade Working Group," established on March 11th, is responsible for this work. This working group also plans to improve the entire process manual for seizure, custody, and sale, and expand professional training. The National Tax Service also plans to establish a new "Digital Asset Management Section" to uniformly manage the seizure, custody, sale, and taxation of virtual assets. The head of the working group stated that this is a common practice in developed countries and will be implemented within the first half of the year after consulting with experts.