In South Korea, the police have uncovered the activities of an organized group involved in commissioned acts of intimidation and vandalism, using cryptocurrency for payments. The investigation revealed that the organizers coordinated their actions via the Telegram messenger, where participants received tasks related to intimidating victims and damaging property.
This is reported by Finway
How the group operated and what methods they used
Group members received between 500,000 and 1,000,000 South Korean won for completing orders, equivalent to $337–$675. Among the pressure tactics were threats, the distribution of defamatory leaflets, and the scattering of human and food waste near the victims’ residences. Some of the suspects claim they did not know who was making the payments.
The police in South Korea reported the exposure of a group organizing so-called “private acts of revenge,” for which the executors were paid in cryptocurrency.
At the end of February 2026, law enforcement detained two suspects. They are accused of damaging the front doors of houses, distributing defamatory leaflets with threats and feces. Another detainee, a man in his 20s, scattered excrement and food waste near the stairwell of one of the victims in the city of Suwon, located near Seoul. Investigators are confident that the suspects acted under clear instructions from an organized structure that managed “revenge orders” through Telegram. The search for the network’s organizers is ongoing.
Other high-profile crimes involving cryptocurrencies in South Korea
The investigation is also examining the connection of these new episodes with events from December 7, 2025, when three executors received cryptocurrency for distributing defamatory leaflets and vandalism. These incidents occur against the backdrop of a rising number of crimes related to digital assets in the country.
In particular, a man was recently accused of poisoning a business partner after a dispute over investments in Bitcoin — after one of the partners lost over $811,000 on personal investments. Additionally, in February, the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb mistakenly distributed to clients 2,000 BTC instead of 2,000 won, and in the Seoul police, bitcoins that were evidence in a criminal case went missing — the disappearance of 22 BTC has been officially confirmed.
A separate incident drew attention when the National Tax Service accidentally published the seed phrase of a wallet containing digital assets worth about $4.8 million. In light of these events, the South Korean government is prepared to review the regulations on the storage of confiscated crypto assets.