South Korean court declares Bitcoin confiscation illegal

Rage Review : South Korean police recently seized 216 bitcoins from individuals suspected of participating in illegal digital currency activities, but later, the South Korean court ruled that this special seizure was not legal. The country's judicial authorities believe that Bitcoin should not be a confiscated commodity, which has established a groundbreaking precedent, creating a new trend for many other countries and providing them with a precedent to follow. The volatility of Bitcoin prices has become the most likely interpretation of the court's move, and it may also mean that the court will set certain rules on digital currencies on its own.

Translation: Clover

Previously, South Korean police seized 216 bitcoins from individuals suspected of participating in illegal digital currency activities. Subsequently, a South Korean court ruled that the seizure was illegal.

South Korea’s Suwon District Court ruled that Bitcoin and related digital currencies should not be confiscated, setting a groundbreaking precedent for granting legal status to those who seize them.

Passing information to regulators

Although South Korea is one of the more progressive countries in terms of Bitcoin and its legalization and regulation, the move by the country's court has sent shockwaves to regulators both in the country and around the world.

Attitudes towards digital currencies are in stark contrast at the moment, with China’s recent regulatory raids in the space providing a glimpse into the socialist country’s tough stance on this innovative technology.

However, the South Korean judiciary has established a precedent that it believes Bitcoin should not be a confiscable commodity, which has set a new trend for many other countries to follow.

“Cannot bear objective standard value”

According to local media Kyunghyang Shinmun, the volatility of Bitcoin prices appears to be the only saving grace for making Bitcoin confiscations illegal, as:

“The reason it’s not appropriate to confiscate bitcoins is that they can’t be assigned an objective standard value.”

Furthermore, according to the court, this also shows that Bitcoin, as a digital currency, has no physical representation and therefore is essentially nothing that can be confiscated.

It also appears to suggest that courts believe Bitcoin has value, albeit one that changes all the time, and that this could mean they will set some of their own rules regarding digital currencies.

Bitcoin involved in porn sites

The case stems from an individual accused of illegally operating a pornographic website that had many members but whose operators never reported membership fees that may or may not have been collected directly in Bitcoin — or that would later be converted into the digital currency.