Dutch crypto exchange Knaken has been declared bankrupt by a Rotterdam court after prosecutors reported a €7 million deficit in customer funds. The collapse affects 30,000 users, who are locked out of their accounts. A court-appointed trustee now controls the firm, and a separate criminal investigation is underway. The failure is linked to Knaken's inability to secure a license under the EU's new MiCA regulations.
Knaken bankruptcy ruling
- ▪Approximately 30,000 users have been affected by Knaken's collapse
- ▪The court found Knaken had a "significant deficit" in customer funds and could not repay them in full
- ▪In late May and early June, Knaken suspended operations, taking its website and app offline and blocking customer access
- ▪The Dutch Public Prosecution Service reported to the court that approximately €7 million was missing from customer balances
- ▪Founded in Rotterdam in 2017, Knaken grew to about 45 employees and sponsored Dutch Eredivisie football clubs
- ▪The court rejected Knaken's own proposal to distribute available funds, instead appointing an outside trustee
- ▪The Rotterdam District Court declared Dutch crypto exchange Knaken bankrupt on July 16
Court-appointed trustee mandate
- ▪The trustee works for the collective body of creditors under a supervising judge
- ▪Trustee C.F.W.A. Hamm now has authority over both Knaken Cryptohandel B.V. and its payments foundation, Stichting Knaken Payments
- ▪The trustee must reconcile the exchange's platform ledgers with its wallets, bank accounts, and other property
- ▪The trustee's mandate is to inventory assets, examine records, liquidate the estate, and propose distributions under Dutch bankruptcy law
Criminal investigation
- ▪The Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) is conducting a criminal investigation into possible misconduct at Knaken
- ▪The civil bankruptcy case and the criminal investigation are being handled by separate teams
- ▪On June 29, 2026, FIOD investigators searched Knaken's premises and seized digital data carriers and company assets
- ▪No arrests had been made in the criminal investigation as of a June 30 statement
Custody structure vulnerabilities
- ▪The bankruptcy of Knaken's payments foundation, Stichting Knaken Payments, is central to customer recovery efforts
- ▪Dutch law lacks an automatic statutory segregation regime for custodied crypto assets, unlike the protections for traditional securities
MiCA regulatory framework
- ▪The MiCA framework requires authorized providers to legally and operationally separate client holdings from the provider's own assets
- ▪Prosecutors stated Knaken had not obtained the required authorization from the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM)
- ▪Knaken's financial problems were linked to the introduction of the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation
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