How to Include Cryptocurrency in Your Prenup: A Step-by-Step Guide

Key Takeaways

Start by inventorying everything: exchange accounts, personal wallets, DeFi positions, NFTs, and other digital property.
Decide in advance how appreciation, staking rewards, and newly acquired crypto will be classified.
Set clear valuation rules — which exchange, which date, and how to handle volatile or illiquid assets.
Build in future-proofing language for asset types and platforms that don't exist yet.

Step 1: Inventory all digital assets

Before you can protect your digital assets in a prenup, you need a complete picture of what you own. This step is often more involved than people expect — especially if you've been active in crypto for several years and have assets spread across multiple platforms.

Start with the obvious: centralized exchange accounts on platforms like Coinbase, Kraken, or Binance. Pull your current balances and note the approximate value. Then move to personal wallets — hardware wallets (Ledger, Trezor) and software wallets (MetaMask, Phantom). Don't forget about assets that aren't sitting in a standard wallet:

DeFi positions: liquidity pool stakes, lending/borrowing positions, yield farm deposits
Staked tokens: ETH in validators, delegated proof-of-stake positions, locked governance tokens
NFT collections: individual NFTs across platforms like OpenSea, Magic Eden, or Blur
Domain names: ENS domains, traditional premium domains, and other digital naming assets
Gaming accounts: any account with real-money tradeable items or in-game currency
Reward points and miles: airline miles, credit card points, and loyalty program balances
Revenue-generating accounts: monetized social media, YouTube channels, Substack or Patreon pages

The goal isn't forensic precision — it's good-faith completeness. You don't need to value every individual NFT. You do need to acknowledge that the collection exists and give a reasonable estimate of its total value. For the full scope of what counts as a digital asset, see our complete guide to cryptocurrency and prenups.

Step 2: Decide on classification

This is the most important substantive decision you'll make. For each category of digital asset, you and your partner need to agree on how it will be classified — and you have several options.

Pre-marital digital assets: The most common approach is to classify all crypto and other digital assets owned before marriage as separate property. This means they remain yours regardless of what happens. The alternative is to defer to state law, which provides less certainty but may feel more balanced to some couples.

Appreciation during marriage: This is where the real decisions happen. You have three main choices: (1) all appreciation remains separate property, which gives the maximum protection to the original holder; (2) all appreciation becomes marital property, which treats growth during the marriage as a shared asset; or (3) a passive/active split, where passive appreciation (just holding) stays separate but active appreciation (trading, managing) becomes marital. The third option is the most nuanced and mirrors how many courts would analyze the question — but it also introduces interpretation risk if there's ever a dispute about what counts as "active."

Assets acquired during marriage: Crypto purchased with marital funds (income earned during the marriage) during the marriage can be treated as equal marital property, assigned to the titleholder (whoever's account holds it), or left to state law. Most couples choose equal division for fairness or title-based for simplicity.

Step 3: Set valuation methodology

Crypto volatility makes valuation one of the most contentious issues in digital asset divorce cases. A 10% swing in Bitcoin's price — perfectly normal on any given week — can mean tens of thousands of dollars difference in what each partner receives. Your prenup should lock down three things:

Which date: Most agreements use the date of the separation event — typically the date a divorce petition is filed or the date of physical separation, depending on state law. Some couples prefer the date of final settlement, but this creates an incentive for the higher-holder to delay proceedings during a dip (or the lower-holder to delay during a rally).

Which price source: Specify a recognized exchange or pricing aggregator. CoinGecko, CoinMarketCap, or a specific major exchange's daily closing price are all reasonable choices. The key is having it decided in advance so there's no argument later.

Illiquid assets: For NFTs, domain names, gaming accounts, and other assets without a clear market price, your agreement should specify a process — typically a jointly retained appraiser or a mutually agreed-upon fair market value. Without a defined process, these assets can become a litigation black hole.

Step 4: Address disclosure requirements

Full financial disclosure is a prerequisite for an enforceable prenup in every state, and digital assets require specific attention. Your disclosure should include exchange account balances, wallet addresses with approximate values, DeFi positions, and any other digital property above a reasonable threshold (many agreements use $1,000).

Be transparent. Courts are increasingly sophisticated at tracing blockchain transactions, and blockchain analysis firms routinely assist in divorce proceedings. Attempting to hide crypto assets doesn't just undermine your disclosure — it can invalidate your entire prenup. Clause's financial disclosure tools include a dedicated Digital Assets category that walks you through exactly what to disclose.

Step 5: Consider ongoing obligations

Your prenup should address what happens when one spouse buys more crypto during the marriage. If you're using income earned during the marriage (typically marital property) to purchase Bitcoin, those new coins may be classified differently than your pre-marital holdings. Consider whether you want separate rules for new acquisitions vs. additions to existing positions.

Some couples also include notification obligations — if one partner makes a digital asset purchase above a certain threshold, they notify the other. This isn't about permission; it's about maintaining the transparency that underpins the agreement's enforceability.

Step 6: Plan for the unknown

The digital asset landscape changes fast. When Bitcoin launched in 2009, NFTs didn't exist. When Ethereum launched in 2015, DeFi didn't exist. When most existing prenup templates were written, none of this existed. Your agreement needs language broad enough to capture future asset types.

A well-drafted digital assets clause defines the category broadly — "all forms of electronically stored value or property, including but not limited to..." — so that new token types, new platforms, and new forms of digital value are automatically covered. You don't want to discover during a divorce that your agreement covers Bitcoin and Ethereum but doesn't mention the new asset class you invested in three years after the wedding.

Common mistakes couples make

**Using vague language:** "All crypto stays with the original owner" sounds clear but doesn't address appreciation, staking rewards, or assets bought during the marriage. Specificity matters.
**Forgetting DeFi:** Liquidity pool positions, yield farming, and lending platforms hold real value that needs to be addressed separately from simple token holdings.
**Ignoring mining and staking income:** If one spouse runs a mining rig or validator, the income it generates during the marriage needs explicit classification.
**Skipping the valuation method:** Without a specified date and price source, you're inviting a fight over which number to use.
**Not disclosing everything:** Omitting a wallet or exchange account — even accidentally — can undermine the entire agreement.

How Clause walks you through this

Clause's Agreement Builder includes a dedicated digital assets section (available on the Comprehensive plan) that guides you through each of these decisions step by step. You'll choose your pre-marital classification, appreciation treatment, marital acquisition rules, and online account handling — and the platform generates state-specific legal language based on your answers. The financial disclosure tools include a Digital Assets category for documenting your holdings.

No generic prenup template handles digital assets with this level of specificity. Start your Clause agreement and build a prenup that actually addresses the assets you own.