Divorce gets complicated when the assets involved don’t fit neatly into a bank statement. Joint cloud storage subscriptions, shared streaming accounts, cryptocurrency, and digital businesses created during a marriage all raise questions that traditional divorce law wasn’t originally written to answer.
Under the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA), 750 ILCS 5/503, marital property includes all assets acquired by either spouse during the marriage. That applies just as much to a Bitcoin wallet as it does to a savings account. If you or your spouse acquired cryptocurrency or grew an online business after the wedding date, it’s considered marital property subject to “equitable division”.
Cryptocurrency is hard to handle in divorce for two reasons: it’s volatile, and it’s easy to hide. Unlike a 401(k) or a brokerage account, a crypto wallet isn’t tied to your name or a financial institution. It’s accessed with a private key, can be stored on a hardware device the size of a thumb drive, and can be transferred internationally in minutes. That means you may not even know if your spouse has crypto assets.
Valuing crypto is its own challenge. Prices can skyrocket or tumble at any point between the start of your divorce and when it’s finalized. Courts may use the value at filing, at trial, or go with an average.
Shared accounts like cloud storage plans loaded with years of family photos and joint streaming services don’t have the same financial impact as a crypto investment, but they’re still divorce considerations.
Before or during divorce proceedings, you should back up any shared cloud content you want to save. Courts don’t usually decide who keeps the iCloud subscription, but shared data can be lost, deleted, or locked out during a contentious separation.
Illinois courts now regularly divide online businesses as marital assets. That includes e-commerce stores, content channels that you’ve monetized, freelance platforms with client bases, and even digital agencies. If one or both spouses built or grew that business during the marriage, it’s on the table.
The big question is what it’s worth. Online businesses don’t always have traditional balance sheets. Revenue might run through PayPal or Stripe, with an all-digital inventory. The value could be tied to a personal brand that doesn’t really transfer to a new owner.
One spouse may want to keep the business running. The other may prefer a buyout. If the business can’t easily be split or sold, courts look at creative options: offsetting the business’s value with other marital assets, structuring a payment plan, or, in some cases, ordering a sale.
If you’re heading into a divorce and own digital assets, Gandhi Selim Law can help. Contact us to schedule a consultation.
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