BarbriSFCourseDetails

Course Details

This CLE webinar will offer guidance on how bankruptcy and restructuring attorneys are analyzing the many complex and novel legal theories and information challenges they face when representing clients involved in digital currency exchange cases or when the debtor is the holder of digital assets that need to be valued, preserved, and monetized. The panel will give attention to avoidance actions and the unique problems that occur when the opposing party is or becomes a debtor itself. 


Faculty

Description

Applying the Bankruptcy Code, created in 1978, to digital assets maintained on digital “exchanges” has raised numerous complicated legal issues and frustrating discovery challenges, forcing both judges and lawyers to get creative and stay flexible with practical workarounds. There appears no reason to believe the industry will face significant regulation. Hearing from trail blazers and others who have found ways to address these problems can be game changing.

Peculiar issues often arise when litigating turnover or avoidance actions. In fact, Coinbase has published its own guide for bankruptcy trustees. In a recurring scenario, the assets of one debtor are actually held by or were transferred to another debtor, leading to debtor v. debtor conflicts across jurisdictions and circuits. Lessons from a wave of cryptocurrency exchange and lender bankruptcies starting in 2022 speak to getting records and information, identifying property of the estate, application of the automatic stay, perfection of security interests, and recovery of transferred assets.

Listen as our panel discusses lessons from the bankruptcies of crypto exchanges, practical approaches to novel problems, and the key issues arising in the bankruptcies of debtors owning these assets, and what policy changes could mean for bankruptcy and reorganization professionals.

Outline

I. Overview of exchange bankruptcies

II. Lessons on key issues from exchange bankruptcies

III. Challenges with digital and crypto assets

A. Obtaining data and records

B. Volatility and valuation

C. Classification of claims

D. Perfection of security interests

E. Avoidance actions

F. Limits of bankruptcy jurisdiction: Ryniker v. Washington (In re Augustus Intelligence), Case No. 21-10744, Adv. Proc. No. 23-50370 (Bankr. D. Del.2025)

IV. Effect of policy and enforcement changes

Benefits

The panel will discuss these and other important issues:

  • In what medium are crypto claims paid? 
  • What can trustees recover in avoidance actions?
  • How are crypto assets valued throughout the life of the case and for unique bankruptcy purposes?
  • Who is entitled to increases in the value for crypto assets over the life of the case?