South Korea’s First-Half Crypto Procurement Budget Tops $7.3 Million as Police, Tax Agency Expand Projects

South Korea’s government allocated 10.06 billion won ($7.3 million) to cryptocurrency-related procurement projects in the first half of this year, with major items including a police license renewal for transaction-tracing software and the National Tax Service’s build-out of an integrated analysis system.

EToday reported on June 25 that the allocated budget for tender notices related to virtual assets reached 10.06 billion won this year. That was larger than the 9.6 billion won allocated in notices for all of last year.

Last year, 29 crypto-related procurement projects were announced, including 6.64 billion won in the first half and 2.96 billion won in the second half. The figures are based on allocated budgets listed in tender notices, not actual contract values or executed spending.

By agency, the National Police Agency accounted for 5.44 billion won in allocated budget, followed by the National Tax Service at 3.51 billion won and the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office at 1.06 billion won.

A key police project is a 3.7 billion won license renewal for a virtual-asset analysis program. Project documents show the software can visualize transaction flows in real time for about 130 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ether, while also identifying links between wallet addresses and tracing IP addresses.

The program is used in investigations to classify addresses tied to domestic and overseas exchanges, ransomware and stolen funds, and to track the movement of cryptocurrencies used in crimes.

National Police Agency data showed that offenders who used cryptocurrencies accounted for 9.2% of all drug offenders from January through April this year. The Ministry of Science and ICT and the police are also pursuing a three-year, 13.2 billion won project starting this year to develop an integrated narcotics investigation system linking dark-web and virtual-asset transaction tracking.

National Tax Service-related tender notices included construction of an integrated virtual-asset analysis system, supervision services, transaction-tracking training, and storage and management of seized cryptocurrencies.

The National Tax Service recently said in its 2026 tax administration plan that it would create a control tower to respond to crypto-related tax evasion and set up a system to track and analyze transaction data.