Knaken, a Dutch crypto exchange, was declared bankrupt by a court on June 30, 2026, after operating without a license under the EU's MiCA rules. Customers were locked out of their accounts in June, and about $8 million (€7 million) of customer money has vanished. The exchange had roughly 30,000 customers.
Why the court stepped in
The Netherlands enforced the MiCA licensing deadline early on June 30, 2025. Knaken never obtained a license from the Dutch regulator AFM. The exchange went offline in June 2026, and a court declared it bankrupt on June 30. Knaken argued it didn't need to go bankrupt, claiming customer money was safe. The court disagreed and appointed an independent trustee.
What happened to customer funds
Dutch law doesn't automatically protect crypto assets if a platform fails. Firms typically use a separate foundation to hold client coins. Knaken's foundation — Stichting Knaken Payments — didn't safeguard the missing funds. Under MiCA, a licensed firm must keep client coins separate and safe from creditors. Knaken wasn't licensed, so that protection never applied.
Regulatory and criminal response
Dutch financial crime investigators (FIOD) raided Knaken on June 29, 2026, seizing computers and assets. No arrests have been made. This isn't the first MiCA enforcement in the Netherlands — Dutch regulators previously fined OKX over MiCA breaches in 2025. But Knaken's collapse is the first full bankruptcy tied to the new rules.
Dutch compensation schemes don't cover crypto. Recovery depends entirely on the trustee, who will try to locate and distribute whatever assets remain. That process could take months, and there's no guarantee customers will get their money back. The trustee's first report is expected within weeks.
