The South Korean Supreme Court's ruling has completely rewritten the legal status of crypto assets. This time, the unresolved issue has finally been settled — Bitcoin held in exchange accounts can now be legally seized assets.

Here's what happened. During an investigation into a money laundering case, the police seized 55.6 Bitcoins from the suspect's exchange account, with a market value of about 600 million KRW (approximately $413,000 USD) at the time. The suspect objected and took the matter to court. His argument sounded reasonable — according to Article 106 of the Criminal Procedure Act, seized items must be "tangible objects." Since Bitcoin is purely digital information without physical form, how can it be seized?

This case went from the Seoul District Court all the way to the Supreme Court. Ultimately, the Supreme Court made a clear ruling: disagree.

The court's reasoning was straightforward. Although Bitcoin is intangible, it can be independently managed, traded, and has real economic value, which meets the legal definition of "assets" under criminal law. The key is "economic control" — as long as the item has value and can be controlled, whether digital or physical, it is not an issue.

The considerations behind this ruling are also easy to understand. If digital attributes exclude crypto assets from seizure, then illicit gains would have a natural safe haven. This is clearly not the legislative intent. The Supreme Court's decision effectively incorporates crypto assets into the scope of criminal law protection. For the entire industry, this is a significant step forward in legal recognition.