In the event that a couple tries everything they can to salvage a marriage and it still falls through, one of the major things involved in a divorce is declaring and dividing the marital property. This includes tangible assets like the house and car but also includes intangible assets like bank accounts.
One new addition to these digital assets is a cryptocurrency, which has the potential to make property division more complicated.
Defining cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency is a digital asset with strong encryptions. Its value fluctuates since the market trends are all that decide it. If people decide to sell a form of cryptocurrency for $10 and someone buys it, then that is its value until someone sells it for more or less. According to CNBC, the total value of the cryptocurrency market crested over $2 trillion as of April 2021.
This makes cryptocurrency an attractive investment since a cryptocurrency might blow up in value without warning. Thanks to the difficult encryption and fully digital nature of it, cryptocurrency is easy to hide as well—easy enough to hide it during divorce proceedings.
Finding cryptocurrency
As Business Valuation Resources details, anyone who suspects their spouse of having a secret cryptocurrency account may hire forensic accountants to investigate. While this is expensive, uncovering this sort of fraud may help with a fair distribution of marital property. Tactics to uncover these accounts include:
- Securing depositions from a crypto accountant or company
- Ordering subpoenas for physical electronic devices
- Finding spending holes in a shared checking account
Despite being so new, cryptocurrency is an asset just like any other piece of marital property and courts divide it in much the same way as others. Approaching this complex aspect of divorce requires dedicated research and reliable resources in order to smooth out the divorce process.