We’re divorcing — has my husband got hidden bitcoins?

We’re divorcing — has my husband got hidden bitcoins?

Over the past year or so I have overheard my husband telling his friends about how well his bitcoin investments have done. We are now getting divorced and I realise I have no idea how much his cryptocurrency holdings are worth or even how to find that out.

When it comes to disclosing our assets and negotiating a financial settlement I have no evidence at all that it actually exists. Is there anything I can do other than hope that he is honest about it? What will happen if he claims he has nothing in bitcoin?

Harriet Errington, partner at law firm Boodle Hatfield, says this is an increasingly common dilemma of the digital age.

The anonymous nature of cryptocurrencies makes them notoriously difficult to deal with in the context of divorce proceedings, despite the wide-ranging powers of the family courts in England and Wales.

Cryptocurrencies are held in digital wallets which create “addresses” for transactions, none of which are logged to individuals. If your spouse refuses to declare his cryptocurrency holdings, it is very difficult to ascertain these holdings as there is no central authority through which one can put names to assets.

The key is to identify the point of entry into or