Digital wallets are more common these days than ever before. While they have a variety of useful purposes, some people may also use them in attempts to do illegal activities such as hiding assets.
But what is asset hiding in divorce? How do people use their digital wallets to accomplish this?
What are digital wallets?
CNBC discusses the way that some spouses may hide assets with their digital wallets. First of all, what is a digital wallet?
As the name implies, this is a wallet that holds a person’s digital assets. This can include things like credit and debit cards which a person can use online, but it can also include entirely digital assets like cryptocurrency.
Hiding assets during divorce
How do people use it to hide assets during divorce? Simply put, not many people had an awareness of digital assets until somewhat recently. Thus, a person could transfer other assets into digital assets like cryptocurrency and hide it within their digital wallet knowing that their spouse would likely never think to look there.
This allowed people with technological know-how to store and hide thousands of dollars or more without their spouses ever knowing. In some cases, it even helped them to grow their wealth because people commonly invest in cryptocurrency and use it as a means to generate more income.
However, even digital means of asset hiding are illegal. Thus, if someone believes their spouse is attempting to hide assets in a digital wallet, they can take steps to investigate the matter and determine what is happening.