Out of the 2,047 South Korean public officials who submitted asset declaration, 20% reported to owning crypto assets. Seoul City Councilor Kim Hye-young held the largest amount with 1.7 billion KRW.
According to a recent report by local media Munhwa, on March 27 the Government Public Ethics Committee publicly disclosed the detailed report of personal assets held by the country’s public officials as of 2025. Based on information from the ethics watchdog, 411 out of 2,047 public officials directly hold or have invested in cryptocurrency.
This means that 20% of South Korean officials hold cryptocurrency, including the Secretary General of the Labor-Management Development Foundation, President of the Korean National Police University, and Vice President of the Korea Water Resources Corporation among others.
The total worth of crypto assets held by the 411 public officials amounted to 14.41 billion Korean won or equal to $9.8 million. The report concluded that each South Korean official who owned crypto held an average of 35.07 million Korean won ($23,927).
The public official who holds the most funds in cryptocurrency is Seoul City Councilor Kim Hye-young. According to her asset disclosure, Kim reported to holding $1.76 billion Korean won ($1.2 million) distributed into 16 different types of crypto assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Ripple (XRP) and many more.
Councilor Kim herself held 0.0014 BTC, while her husband invested in 0.01 ETH, 472 DOGE and 519,004 XRP. Meanwhile, her eldest son holds 3,336 XRP.
The public official with the second largest crypto holdings was revealed to be another Seoul City Councilor by the name of Choi Min-gyu. He reportedly holds a total of 1.6 billion Korean won ($1,09 million) in crypto assets. In third place is CEO of Busan-Ulsan Expressway Co., Kim Ki-hwan with crypto holdings worth a total of 1.4 billion Korean won ($955,031).
This is the second year South Korean public officials were obligated to include virtual assets as part of their financial disclosures to the Government Public Ethics Committee. In May 2023, South Korean regulators passed a bill that mandated public officials and political candidates to disclose their cryptocurrency holdings.
Since it came into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, high-ranking public officials in South Korea, including National Assembly members have to abide by the bill and report their crypto holdings to the ethics committee.
Public officials categorized under Grade 4 must disclose the quantity and the type of cryptocurrency they hold. While high-ranking public officials categorized under Grade 1 must disclose not only their crypto holdings, but also explain in detail how they acquired the crypto assets along with their transaction history throughout the past year.
