South Korean Man Faces Murder Charge Over Bitcoin Bet Gone Bad

A cryptocurrency investment dispute in South Korea has led to attempted murder charges after prosecutors said a man tried to poison his business partner after the colleague mismanaged funds.

According to a report by South Korean media outlet The Chosun Daily on Monday, the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office indicted a 39-year-old man on charges of attempted murder and violating the Pesticide Control Act.

Authorities say a man identified by law enforcement as Mr. A handed his business partner, identified as Mr. B, a coffee laced with methomyl—a banned toxic insecticide—on Nov. 23 at a café near Seokchon Lake in Songpa-gu, Seoul.

“I was about to get married at the time, and my wife was in the early stages of pregnancy”, Mr. B told Asia Business Daily. “The family was almost completely destroyed,” he said, adding that he has recovered from the poisoning attack but still needs medical care.

Prosecutors said the two had been in business together since 2022, managing funds through Bitcoin investment programs. Prosecutors say the relationship deteriorated after Mr. A personally invested and lost 1.17 billion won, roughly $811,000 worth. The report said that Mr. A “failed to recover” the funds, though it’s unclear whether the partner lost access to the funds or had been the victim of theft or a scam.

Bitcoin has trended downward since hitting its last all-time high of $126,080 in October, and when the attack took place, the coin had already fallen about 35% from that mark.

Prosecutors say tensions between the partners escalated during that period. According to authorities, after Mr. B took over management of the company’s funds in September, Mr. A is believed to have begun plotting to carry out the attack.

After drinking the coffee, the unnamed victim collapsed and was rushed to a hospital, where he was treated in intensive care and regained consciousness three days later.

The first hearing in the South Korean case is scheduled for March 10 at the Seoul Eastern District Court. Prosecutors allege that Mr. A bought the poison before the loss on the Bitcoin investment.

The case comes amid a growing rise in physical crypto-linked crimes. A CertiK report in February documented a 75% year-over-year increase in “wrench attacks” that resulted in more than $40.9 million in confirmed losses in 2025.

Recent “wrench attack” cases include a home invasion targeting a crypto executive’s family in France, the jailing of UK teenagers who stole $4.3 million in cryptocurrency at knifepoint, and a kidnapping and murder in Spain in which attackers allegedly tried to force victims to unlock their digital wallets.