Crypto in insolvency.
For liquidators, administrators, trustees in bankruptcy and receivers. Finding the crypto a company or bankrupt held, tracing where it went before your appointment, securing what's left and valuing it on the dates that matter.
Why crypto goes missing
Crypto has no central register. It can sit on an exchange in the company's name, on an overseas exchange in a director's name, or in a wallet only one person holds the keys to. It can move across the world in minutes, and it's often missing from the books entirely.
Courts treat it as property. In Ruscoe v Cryptopia (2020), New Zealand's High Court held that cryptocurrency is property and that the failed exchange held its customers' coins on trust. That makes crypto something an appointee can find, secure and realise, provided someone can follow it.
Find it, trace it, secure it
Identify holdings
From the books, bank statements, exchange records, devices and the blockchain itself.
Trace transfers
Follow crypto that left before your appointment, to directors, related parties or exchanges, with dates and values.
Secure and preserve
Freeze requests to exchanges, and documented transfer of self-custody holdings into wallets you control.
Value on key dates
At transfer, at appointment and at realisation, each with its price source recorded.
Realise
Advice on converting holdings to cash through reputable channels, with a clear audit trail.
Expert evidence
Reports for court, or material for public examinations of directors.
How an engagement runs
Initial review
What the records show, what's missing, and where crypto is likely to be.
Preserve first
Urgent freeze requests and securing anything at risk of moving.
Trace
Hop-by-hop tracing of every relevant transfer, documented as it's done.
Value
Values at each relevant date, ready for reports to creditors.
Report
Findings written for the appointee, creditors or the court.
Realise
Support converting recovered holdings, with every transaction recorded.
Insolvency questions
Can crypto be recovered from a director who moved it before liquidation?
A trace shows where it went and when, which is the evidence a liquidator needs to assess whether a transfer can be challenged and to support any claim. Whether it can be recovered is a legal question for the liquidator and their lawyers, but the trace is usually where that starts.
How do you find crypto that isn't in the company's books?
Bank statements often show transfers to exchanges. Exchange records then show withdrawals to wallets, and the blockchain shows where those wallets sent funds next. Clustering links wallets controlled by the same person.
How is crypto secured once it's found?
Exchange-held crypto can often be frozen by the exchange on request with evidence of the appointment. Self-custody crypto has to be moved into wallets the appointee controls, using a documented process so nobody else holding a copy of the keys can move it.
Can you value crypto at the date of appointment?
Yes, and at any other date that matters: when transfers were made, at appointment, and at realisation. Each value is recorded with its price source and time.
Do you give expert evidence in insolvency proceedings?
Yes. Findings can be written up as an expert report for court, or as material for a public examination.