South Korea’s Tax Crackdown: NTS Deploys Advanced Tech to Track Non-Custodial Wallets for Evasion

South Korea’s National Tax Service (NTS) has launched a procurement to buy advanced blockchain analysis tools from Chainalysis and TRM Labs to track non‑custodial wallets and crack down on undeclared crypto income. The move—announced in a Public Procurement Service bid in March 2025—boosts the NTS’s ability to detect mixers, cluster addresses across chains and integrate on‑chain forensics with tax investigations. Market implications include greater compliance by institutions, potential migration toward privacy tools, and episodic price volatility as enforcement ramps up. The initiative could strengthen legitimacy for regulated services in Korea and set a regional precedent, while privacy advocates warn of expanded surveillance and limitations against sophisticated privacy techniques.