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Should you watch your spouse’s digital wallet?

On Behalf of | Apr 22, 2022 | Family Law |

Going through a divorce, you are likely to deal with a headache when it comes to asset division. Whether it is the amount of time you spend on it, the money that goes into litigation or simply the emotional stress, it is a potentially major issue.

Unfortunately, matters sometimes get complicated when a spouse tries to hide assets, too. They may use a digital wallet to do so. But how?

Unregulated digital currency

CNBC discusses the problems associated with digital wallets and asset division in divorce. Essentially, digital wallets hold on to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and other digital tokens which represent a certain amount of money.

In the recent past, cryptocurrency was not a highly regulated form of money. In fact, it was not until the recent calendar year that the IRS began to tax cryptocurrency.

Before then, many people who wanted to get away with underhanded financial dealings with turn to cryptocurrency for its low rate of government interference. This includes money launderers, fraudsters and spouses attempting to hide assets.

Increased awareness of crypto

Many would rely on the notion that their spouse likely did not even know about the existence of cryptocurrency, or did not care if they did know. However, these days, more and more people know about just how much money a person can hide in their digital wallets.

Anyone whose spouse has digital wallets, assets, cryptocurrency and more should keep an eye out for suspicious or strange behavior. This can include refusing to share financial information or acting paranoid and overly cautious when allowing other people to handle their electronics, such as their phones or laptops.