Korean police seize cryptocurrency for unpaid fines

Yes, yes, don't be surprised, although so far, we're only talking about traffic fines near Seoul.

To pay off the balance of overdue traffic fines, police in the suburbs of Seoul can seize cryptocurrency.

For now, the pilot program only allows cryptocurrency to be charged from exchangers for overdue traffic fines. The programme is operating in Gunpo, a city of about 275,000 people in northwestern Gyeonggi province. The city that the national government chose to implement the pilot crypto programme in 2022. 

But it is already considered a last resort and can only be used if the defendant's bank account already has no funds available.

The Korean cryptocurrency market is lucrative for law enforcement in terms of fines, growing to $45.9 billion in 2021.