A Dutch crypto exchange called Knaken has collapsed. A court declared it bankrupt for running without a license under the EU’s MiCA rules, its new crypto rulebook.In June, customers were suddenly locked out of their accounts. Prosecutors say about $8 million, or €7 million, has vanished.

Notably, Knaken has no relationship with Kraken. Knaken is a Dutch crypto broker based in Rotterdam that has since entered bankruptcy.

Kraken is a separate US-based global cryptocurrency exchange that continues operating. The two companies are entirely independent despite their almost similar names.

Why Knaken shut down

Knaken let people buy, sell, and store crypto. But it never got a license from the Dutch markets regulator, the AFM. The EU’s MiCA rules, formally known as the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, made that license mandatory.

The Netherlands enforced its MiCA licensing deadline early, on June 30, 2025, one of the strictest in the bloc. Knaken never complied, and it went offline in June 2026.

Dutch prosecutors asked a court to declare the company bankrupt on June 30. They said payouts had stopped and customers were at risk. Prosecutors put Knaken’s customer base at about 30,000 people. Dutch regulators had already fined OKX over MiCA breaches in 2025.

Knaken said it did not need to go bankrupt. It argued that customer money was already safe. The court disagreed. It named an independent trustee to take control and recover what it can.

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The Missing Money Tests the MiCA Rules

Dutch law gives crypto no automatic protection if a platform fails, the AFM says. So firms use a separate legal entity, usually a foundation, to hold client coins apart. Knaken set one up, called Stichting Knaken Payments. But that shield only works if the money is actually there.

Under MiCA, a licensed firm must keep client coins separate and safe. Done right, that money stays out of reach of the company’s creditors. The same problem hit the recent AscendEX exchange collapse.

Dutch financial crime investigators, the FIOD, raided Knaken on June 29 and seized computers and company assets. No one has been arrested. The criminal case is separate from the bankruptcy.

Customers also have little safety net. Dutch compensation schemes do not cover crypto, unlike bank deposits. So recovery depends on what the trustee can trace.

Payouts could take months, and nothing is guaranteed. For many, it renews an old warning about holding your own crypto.

Source: BeInCrypto