The encyclopedia · Trading & Investing · Financial decision · 2026
Dutch crypto exchange Knaken went bankrupt with €7M of customer funds missing
Amid ~30,000 users locked out and a criminal investigation, a Rotterdam court declared Knaken bankrupt over ~€7M in missing customer funds.
Knaken · 2026-07-16
What happened
Knaken, a Dutch cryptocurrency exchange, held the funds of roughly 30,000 users while a dispute over nearly €7 million (about $8 million) of missing customer assets escalated through the summer of 2026. Users had been locked out of their balances since early June, and the Netherlands' financial-crime investigation service raided the company in late June, seizing devices and assets.
On 30 June the Public Prosecution Service filed a bankruptcy petition after opening a criminal investigation into the missing funds. On 16 July a Rotterdam court declared Knaken Cryptohandel BV and its affiliated foundation bankrupt. The roughly €7 million shortfall is the checkable bill: a custody business could not account for the assets it held for customers.
The failure is one of custody and governance: the platform took customer balances it could not track, and when the gap was discovered the business had neither the funds nor a solvent path forward. The court-ordered bankruptcy and the criminal probe turned a flat exchange into a frozen one.
Why it happened
- Customer funds were held in a way the exchange could not fully account for, so a shortfall of roughly €7 million was not discovered until users were locked out.
- The business had no solvent route once the gap surfaced, leaving the court to impose bankruptcy rather than letting the platform wind down on its own terms.
- Taking custody of assets it could not trace exposed the exchange to a single point of failure that the criminal investigation made terminal.
The lesson
A custodian that cannot trace the assets it holds for customers is borrowing against its own books — the shortfall becomes a criminal investigation and a bankruptcy the moment the gap is counted.
Aftermath
The Dutch Public Prosecution Service's criminal investigation into the missing funds continued after the bankruptcy ruling.
Sources
- CryptoBriefing — Dutch crypto exchange Knaken declared bankrupt after ~€7M missing
- Cointelegraph — Dutch court declares Knaken crypto platform bankrupt after missing funds, 17 Jul 2026
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