When the history books are written, it may be said that the biggest event to shake the crypto world was not the crypto bankruptcies of 2022, but rather, the clawback of billions of dollars in crypto value in those bankruptcies.
Since summer 2022, five major crypto companies have filed bankruptcy: a hedge fund (Three Arrows Capital), two lenders (Celsius and BlockFi), a broker (Voyager), and an exchange (FTX). Next up, it is reasonable to expect a wave of lawsuits seeking to clawback crypto transfers made to customers and investors prior to the bankruptcies. When that happens, courts will need to synthesize existing law with modern finance, likely creating new law in the process.