Stolen Bitcoin Voluntarily Returned by Hacker in South Korea: What Prompted the Return?

South Korean authorities have recovered approximately $21.4 million (about 3.3 billion yen) worth of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC), which was stolen last year. It appears that the hacker voluntarily returned the funds, as reported by local media on the 19th.

The Bitcoin in question was originally seized by the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office during a raid on a gambling platform, but its loss was discovered in December last year. An internal investigation revealed that it had been stolen in August due to a hacking incident.

This incident occurred when an investigator mistakenly accessed a phishing site and entered the recovery seed phrase.

A seed phrase is a critical security feature for cryptocurrency wallets...