Practice Area · Financial Complexity
Cryptocurrency & digital assets.
Digital assets have a reputation as the perfect hiding place. The reputation is out of date. Crypto is property like any other in a Colorado divorce — and in some ways it's the easiest asset class to catch lying about.
Property, Fully in Play
The classification is settled; the work is practical.
Coins, tokens, NFTs, staking positions, and exchange balances are property subject to Colorado's marital/separate framework and to the same sworn Rule 16.2 disclosure duty as every bank account — acquired during the marriage, presumptively marital; concealed, sanctionable. The interesting questions aren't whether crypto divides, but how it's found, valued on a moving market, and transferred without losing it. Those are process problems, and process is what I do.
Finding It
The blockchain forgives nothing.
The search runs on rails: U.S. exchanges are regulated businesses that maintain account records and respond to subpoenas; the federal income tax return asks every filer whether they transacted in digital assets, under penalty of perjury; and bank statements show the fiat on-ramps — transfers to Coinbase or Kraken sitting in plain sight. For self-custody, the ledger itself is public and permanent: once a wallet is linked to a person, every transaction it ever made is visible forever. Cash forgets; the chain doesn't.
Valuing the Volatile
Pick the date, or share the ride.
An asset that can move 20% in a week strains a process that values estates as of a hearing months away. Two clean solutions: fix a valuation date by agreement and let one party keep the position at that price — or divide in kind, transferring coins rather than dollar values so both parties share the market risk equally. What fails is pretending volatility away. The right choice depends on who wants the exposure, and I negotiate it explicitly rather than by accident.
Tracing & Separate Claims
Pre-marital coins meet marital behavior.
Crypto bought before the marriage can support a separate-property claim — but wallets commingle as easily as bank accounts, and staking rewards, trading activity, and marital-fund purchases braid separate and marital strands together. The public ledger cuts both ways here: it can prove a pristine pre-marital position, or document precisely when marital dollars entered the wallet. The records-management discipline that governs separate-property claims applies with full force, timestamped.
Securing the Transfer
A settlement you can't take custody of isn't one.
Paper divides crypto; keys deliver it. Settlement terms must specify the mechanics — on-exchange transfers to an account in your sole name, or on-chain transfers to a wallet you control, verified before releases are signed — along with responsibility for the tax character of the division (§ 1041's nonrecognition rules apply to crypto transferred between spouses incident to divorce, with basis carrying over). I close these the way I close every division: not when the order enters, but when the asset is actually in your hands.
The rest of this chapter.
Closely held businesses, professional practices, executive and equity compensation, trusts, real estate, and the tracing that decides what is marital and what is not.
- Business Valuationthe number that decides the case→
- High-Asset Divorcecomplex estates, disclosure, and the five-year rule→
- Business Owner Divorcekeeping the company you built→
- Complex Financial Divorcevalue, characterize, tax-effect — then divide→
- Property Divisionequitable, not automatic 50/50→
- Separate Propertya records-management discipline→
- Spousal Maintenancethe formula, published with a worked example→
- Executive Compensationproperty or income — the line worth arguing→
- Stock Options & RSUstax character changes real value→
- Trust Intereststhe instrument, not the balance, decides→
- Real Estatevalue, equity, and after-tax proceeds differ→
- Retirement AssetsQDROs, and three different currencies→
- Professional Practicesgoodwill, licensure, and buyouts→
- Tax Strategythe settlement that matters is the after-tax one→
- Hidden Assets & Forensic Discoverythe disclosure duty, and the five-year hammer→
- Cryptocurrency & Digital Assetsfindable, valuable, divisibleYou are here
- Married to the Business Ownerleveling the information field→
- Income Determinationwhat “income” means when you own the company→
Engagement
If the estate includes digital assets — disclosed or not — bring the question here.
A consultation is a scheduled working session — in person in Greenwood Village or by video — in which we go through your situation and I tell you what I would do. It is a paid meeting, not a free call and not a sales pitch; my assistant quotes the consultation fee when you schedule. There is no chatbot here: the contact form and the phone both reach my office, my assistant reviews every inquiry personally, and the meeting goes on my calendar. Please hold the confidential details until we have run a conflicts check.