Cryptoassets are traded on a global basis. Indeed, the markets are even more global and constant than markets in more conventional financial instruments, rivalled only perhaps by the FX markets in their reach.

Two priority issues arise between creditors of a common debtor:

So, you’re a lender who has a perfected security interest in a large pile of limestone aggregate at a cement plant. Another lender has a perfected security interest in a pile of clay at that same plant. The aggregate and clay are crushed, and then ground and blended with other ingredients, before being heated in a kiln to produce a substance called “clinker”.

Lenders should be aware that a broad definition of “wages” owing to employees of a borrower/customer in bankruptcy or receivership can take priority over what a lender might otherwise believe is its “first ranking charge” against the borrower.