In a stunning operational slip, South Korea’s National Tax Service reportedly exposed a crypto wallet seed phrase in an official press release — and the market reacted fast.

The agency had proudly announced the seizure of assets worth 8.1 billion won (around $5.6 million) from 124 major tax delinquents. Among the confiscated items were four USB drives containing digital assets. Unfortunately, an accompanying photo also showed a sheet of paper with the wallet’s seed phrase — completely unredacted.

From Press Release to Wallet Drain

Shortly after the image went public, someone deposited a small amount of ETH into the wallet — likely to cover gas fees — and proceeded to transfer out 4 million PRTG tokens, valued at approximately $4.8 million. The funds were moved to an unknown address across three separate transactions.

The silver lining? PRTG is a relatively small-cap token with limited liquidity. Offloading that size position into real cash without triggering massive slippage could prove extremely difficult. Still, the damage from a security standpoint is undeniable.

A Pattern of Costly Mistakes?

This isn’t the first crypto-related mishap to come out of South Korea this month. Earlier, an employee at the exchange Bithumb reportedly made an airdrop error — mistakenly distributing 2,000 BTC instead of 2,000 won (roughly $1.5).

Now, publishing a visible seed phrase in a government press photo? That’s a mistake straight out of Crypto Security 101.

The Bigger Lesson

Crypto doesn’t forgive operational negligence. A seed phrase is the master key. Once exposed, control of the wallet is effectively lost — no matter who originally “owns” it.

This incident is yet another reminder: whether you’re a retail holder, an exchange, or a government agency, basic security hygiene isn’t optional in Web3.

In crypto, one screenshot can cost millions.

#Binance #wendy $BTC