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Theirs is considered the first “bitcoin divorce” where cryptocurrency was factored in the financial arrangement. After three years of legal wranglings, a San Francisco court found that Francis had not properly disclosed the currency – which had exploded in value – and ordered him to pay up more than £5m to Erica.say Bitcoin divorces are increasingly happening here too.
“Crypto has the capability of being the new Cayman Islands bank account,” he said, adding that though it may not “necessarily be the intention” of crypto investors to hide their assets, it certainly helps when it comes to divorce cases. “In one case the husband denied having any crypto but we were able to prove that he did as he used his own name as his username in various coin chatrooms,” he said. “In another case we discovered undisclosed transfers to a crypto exchange by looking through his bank statements.”
“The family courts need help, and we have to open the dialogue and allow judges to be educated,” she added. “If someone does not have my background then there’s no chance they will get even close to resolving it.” There are other wrinkles that have emerged more recently. Some partners who have hidden cash this way will have lost a lot of it, as the price of Bitcoin has crashed by 68 per cent in the last year, and Ethereum by 70 per cent.