The prosecution of the Netherlands has applied to the Rotterdam Court for the declaration of bankruptcy of the encryption platform Knaken Cryptohandel and its associated entity Stichting Knaken Payments. According to the prosecution, this was in the public interest. Since the beginning of June, the platform has been inaccessible, with some 30,000 clients unable to access the funds in the account.
The client can't get the money after the platform's shut down.
Knaken provides, inter alia, euro and encrypted currency exchange, transactions and hosting services, involving assets such as bitcoin and Etherwood. According to the EU Regulatory Framework for Encrypted Assets and current requirements in the Netherlands, such operations require permission from the Dutch Financial Markets Authority AFM, but Knaken has not been licensed.
The company indicated that the platform had ceased to operate and was entering the liquidation phase. However, the prosecution claims that the current process is not orderly and is concerned about the client ' s funding arrangements. The prosecution also mentioned that Knaken had stopped making payments to clients and allegedly advised users not to file damage claims.
Court approval will be taken over by the trustee.
The Dutch prosecution stated that the application was a civil proceeding initiated on the basis of an AFM warning. If the court approves the application for insolvency, the trustee appointed by the court will take over Knaken ' s assets and decide on the amount of money to be returned to the client and other creditors. According to the prosecution, the allocation and disposal of the post-custody assignment is not the responsibility of the prosecution.
Criminal investigation synchronized.
In addition to the bankruptcy application, the Dutch Financial Information and Investigation Agency FIOD is also pursuing a criminal investigation into whether the platform has committed an offence. The investigation was also based on AFM signals and formal complaints from regulators.
FIOD has carried out a search on Monday, taking equipment such as laptops and mobile phones and seizing the company ' s assets. No arrests have been made. The Prosecution emphasizes that civil insolvency proceedings and criminal investigations are dealt with separately by different teams.
MICA Transition ended on 1 July
The incident occurred at a time of further tightening of encryption in the EU. The MiCA transition period will end on 1 July, when unauthorized platforms will not be able to continue to provide legal services to EU clients. The Dutch national grace period ended a year ago.
The market had anticipated that the new licensing system would speed up the process. With the current limited number of encrypted companies in Europe with full licence plates, and with the regulatory threshold raised, platforms lacking compliance qualifications will face greater survival pressure.