Dunamu has been awarded a one-year contract to take custody of digital assets seized by South Korea’s National Police Agency after emerging as the winner of a public tender. The agreement places the assets under Upbit Custody, the company’s digital asset custody arm, for storage and management.
The contract follows growing scrutiny of how South Korean authorities handle confiscated cryptocurrencies after several cases in which seized Bitcoin was reported missing. Procurement records show Dunamu led the competition on technical scoring before being named the final contractor.
Tender process and award
The contract was issued through an open competitive bidding process run via South Korea’s Public Procurement Service. Dunamu said it received the top technical evaluation score of 94.14 and was then selected as the final contractor.
The company had already been named the preferred negotiating bidder on July 8. Earlier procurement records released in July showed Dunamu ranked first with a combined score of 94.73, made up of full marks on bid price and 84.73 points on the technical assessment.
Other bidders also cleared the evaluation stage. Korea Digital Asset Custody, or K-DAC, placed second with 91.29 points, while Hecto Wallet One came third with 87.27 points. The National Police Agency, responding to suggestions that the result had been decided in advance, said the contractor was chosen through a fair competitive process, according to local media.
How the seized assets will be managed
Under the agreement, seized cryptocurrencies will be held through Upbit Custody. Dunamu said the platform is monitored around the clock, including nights, weekends and public holidays, so that custody operations continue without interruption.
According to the company, the custody environment is built around fully offline cold wallets kept separate from the public internet. Dunamu also said its system uses Multi-Party Computation, Distributed Key Generation, multi-signature controls and wallet segregation so assets can be separated by type and use while lowering the risks tied to a single compromised private key.
A company representative said Dunamu plans to use its security systems and operational controls to support the stability of South Korea’s public safety and digital policing infrastructure.
Missing Bitcoin cases raised pressure
The police custody contract comes after multiple incidents involving cryptocurrency held by South Korean authorities. In February, Gangnam Police Station confirmed that 22 Bitcoin worth about 2.1 billion won, roughly $1.6 million, had disappeared from police custody.
Authorities said the Bitcoin had originally been surrendered during a 2021 investigation. During a nationwide review, investigators found that the coins had been transferred out of the storage wallet without authorization.
Police said the physical cold wallet itself remained in their possession, indicating that the private keys may have been accessed even though the device had not been removed. The Gyeonggi Northern Provincial Police Agency then opened an internal investigation covering access logs, key management procedures and blockchain transaction records.
Broader context and next step
Attention on official crypto custody had already intensified because of other reported losses. Local reports previously said 320 Bitcoin seized in a criminal investigation was lost at the Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office, and media also reported another 2022 case in which police confirmed that seized Bitcoin had gone missing.
Against that backdrop, South Korean authorities moved to shift custody duties to an outside institution with dedicated digital asset security controls. The finalized deal now places seized crypto under Upbit Custody for the next year, while the National Police Agency oversees the arrangement under the terms of the contract.
Source: crypto.news