As the virtual asset market has frozen, the scale of damages caused by related illegal activities has also decreased to one-third of the level from a year ago.
According to data submitted by the National Police Agency to Yoon Chang-hyun, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee from the People Power Party, the amount of damages caused by illegal activities related to virtual assets decreased by 67%, from 3.1282 trillion won in 2021 to 1.0192 trillion won last year.
Last year, the police arrested 285 people in 108 cases related to illegal activities involving virtual assets. Compared to 2021, the number of arrests and suspects decreased by 54% and 67%, respectively.
Regarding pyramid schemes and multi-level marketing crimes disguised as virtual assets last year, a total of 70 cases and 209 people were arrested. A representative case involved deceiving about 7,000 people by promising to guarantee the principal and pay 400% returns in cash or self-issued virtual assets if they invested 1.2 million won per account in content businesses related to popular characters such as Pororo and BTS, embezzling 136.1 billion won.
Illegal activities such as fraud and embezzlement at virtual asset exchanges accounted for 1 case and 1 person, while other purchase agency frauds were identified as 37 cases involving 75 people.
The decrease in damages and arrests related to illegal activities involving virtual assets is interpreted as a result of the virtual asset market downturn. The average daily trading volume of virtual assets in the second half of last year was 3 trillion won, which is one-quarter of the level in the second half of 2021.
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