Voyager judge gets a lesson in crypto as bankruptcy case kicks off

The judge overseeing crypto lender Voyager Digital’s first-of-its-kind bankruptcy got a crash course in digital assets on Friday in the company’s first appearance in court.

Judge Michael Wiles, who said he’s relatively new to crypto, received a real-time primer on concepts like staking and stablecoins from a lawyer for Voyager. The crypto platform filed for Chapter 11 protection earlier this week, and its users likely won’t get all of their holdings returned.  

Both the lawyer and Wiles acknowledged the murky legal questions hanging over the case -- like how, exactly, a bankruptcy court should treat digital assets. 

“I think for many of us this is unchartered territory,” Joshua Sussberg, a Kirkland & Ellis lawyer representing Voyager, said in the hearing. “There will be many potential legal issues of first impression.”