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Knaken enters court-controlled bankruptcy after missing customer funds
A Dutch prosecution told the court about €7 million was missing from customer balances, and the judge barred the exchange from controlling the wind-down.
Dutch crypto exchange Knaken and its affiliated payments foundation entered court-controlled bankruptcy on July 16 after a Rotterdam District Court found the exchange could not repay customers in full. The court said customers were locked out and payments had stopped, while a substantial coverage deficit had not been disclosed.
According to the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, about €7 million was missing from customer balances. The court order also confirmed that management would not control the wind-down, with trustee C.F.W.A. Hamm taking authority over both Knaken Cryptohandel B.V. and Stichting Knaken Payments.
Knaken had argued bankruptcy was unnecessary and pointed to criminal asset seizures, the service shutdown, and its custody structure. It proposed an independent verification process and then its own distribution protocol, but the court rejected that approach and placed an outside trustee in charge.
The trustee will inventory assets and claims, examine records for possible irregularities, protect and liquidate the estate, and propose distributions based on claim priority under Dutch bankruptcy guidance and the Bankruptcy Act. Separate teams handled a civil bankruptcy petition and a criminal investigation, with the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service carrying out searches on June 29, and no arrests reported as of June 30.