Crypto in a Colorado divorce: document it before anyone asks.
Digital assets are property like any other, but they are easy to overlook and hard to trace without records. A clean inventory protects your credibility and shortens the case. This page covers what to collect and the disclosure rules that apply.
Never share a seed phrase or private key. Not with your spouse, not with opposing counsel, and not with your own lawyer by email. Disclosure means identifying accounts, public addresses, balances and history. It never requires handing over the keys.
1. Build one inventory
List every place you hold or have held digital assets since the date of marriage, including accounts that are now empty. For each one, note:
- Where it lives: exchange, brokerage, hardware wallet, software wallet, or other platform.
- Whose name or email is on it, and when it was opened.
- What it holds: coins and tokens, NFTs, staked or locked positions, lending or liquidity positions, and rewards earned.
- The balance on the date of marriage, if it existed then, on the date of separation, and on a current date.
- Where the money that bought it came from, especially if any of it came from before the marriage, a gift or an inheritance.
Valuation dates matter. Under C.R.S. § 14-10-113(5), property is valued as of the date of the decree, or the date of the hearing on disposition of property if that hearing comes first. Crypto prices move fast, so expect values to be updated close to that date.
2. Exchange and brokerage accounts
- Download monthly or annual statements covering the whole marriage, not just the current balance.
- Export the complete transaction history: buys, sells, transfers in and out, conversions, staking rewards and fees.
- Save the deposit and withdrawal addresses the platform shows for transfers to or from outside wallets.
- Keep any tax reports the platform generated, and the tax returns that reported crypto activity.
3. Self-custody wallets and cold storage
- For each wallet, record the wallet type, the networks it uses, and its public receiving addresses. Public addresses let balances and history be confirmed without exposing keys.
- For hardware wallets and other cold storage, note where each device and its backup are kept and who has access. Do not move, wipe or reset a device while a case is pending without talking to your lawyer first.
- Note any wallets that were consolidated, abandoned or lost, and when.
4. Transaction exports that hold up
- Export in a spreadsheet format (CSV) and keep the original files unedited. Make working copies for any notes.
- Cover the full period from the date of marriage, or the account opening if later, through the most recent month.
- Record the date you downloaded each file and where it came from.
- Match transfers between your own accounts so they are not counted twice, and flag transfers to anyone else.
5. The disclosure duty
Colorado's domestic relations case management rule, C.R.C.P. 16.2, "Court Facilitated Management of Domestic Relations Cases and General Provisions Governing Duty of Disclosure," sets the disclosure obligations. Under C.R.C.P. 16.2(e)(1), parties to domestic relations cases owe each other and the court a duty of full and honest disclosure of all facts that materially affect their rights and interests and those of the children, and a party must affirmatively disclose all information material to the resolution of the case without waiting for the other party to ask. Under C.R.C.P. 16.2(e)(2), each party provides the Mandatory Disclosures and a completed Sworn Financial Statement to the other party without a formal discovery request.
The financial form is JDF 1111, Sworn Financial Statement. Its assets section states: "You MUST disclose all assets correctly." The Colorado Judicial Branch's family case process page tells parties that within 42 days of filing (or receiving) a petition they must file JDF 1111 (Sworn Financial Statement), JDF 1111SS (Supporting Schedules, if needed) and JDF 1104 (Certificate of Compliance). Courts can set different dates in a particular case, so follow the orders in yours.
Crypto belongs on the Sworn Financial Statement like any other asset. If you think your spouse holds digital assets they have not disclosed, tell your lawyer. The disclosure and discovery process is the way to get those records; logging in to someone else's accounts is not. See the digital privacy checklist.
Rule and form checked October 17, 2026 on coloradojudicial.gov: Rule Change 2004(19) (adopting Rule 16.2, including (e)(1)); Rule Change 2011(18) (current (e)(2) text); Rule Change 2026(11), adopted April 23, 2026 (current rule title; (b) to (j) unchanged); the JDF 1111 form; and the family case process page. The full consolidated court rules are published through the Judicial Branch's official rules link.
General information about Colorado law, not legal advice about your situation. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case turns on its own facts.