North Carolina Court Upholds $180,000 Bitcoin and Pokemon Card Split in Warber Divorce

A three-Bitcoin hoard valued at $180,000 and an $1,800 stash of collectible Pokemon cards took center stage in a split ruling issued on Nov. 4, 2026, by the North Carolina Court of Appeals. The appellate panel affirmed the valuation and division of the nontraditional marital estate of Tyler Warber and Alexandra Warber, rejecting Tyler's attempts to unravel the distribution. But the victory was not total. The court struck down orders that had forced Tyler to foot his former wife's legal fees and the entire bill run up by a forensic accountant.

Alexandra and Tyler Warber married in 2016 and split in 2022. They share two children, securing joint legal and physical custody in March 2024 after settling maintenance and child-support obligations. By July 2024, their battle shifted to a bench trial over marital property, triggering a procedural stumble from the bench. On Aug. 23, 2024, the trial judge signed a draft order submitted by Tyler. Alexandra contested it immediately. During a follow-up hearing on Dec. 2, 2024, the judge conceded he had mistakenly clicked on and signed Tyler’s proposed document without drafting it himself. The court wiped the slate clean and signed a revised decree on Jan. 25, 2025. Tyler appealed, claiming the trial court lacked authority to fix its own blunder. The appellate judges disagreed. Writing for the panel, the court confirmed that trial judges retain absolute discretion to rectify administrative clerical errors.

Tracing Digital Wallets and Rare Cards

Cryptocurrency formed the centerpiece of the asset war. The trial court pinned the value of three Bitcoin held by the couple at $60,000 apiece on their date of separation—a flat $180,000. A court-appointed forensic accountant dug deeper, combing through 15 private digital wallets and various custodial trading accounts. The forensic audit uncovered an additional $26,076.86 in marital digital property. Tyler contested the numbers on appeal, but he had brought no competing appraisals and had never challenged the accountant's qualifications during the trial. The valuation stood.

| Digital Asset Category | Verified Marital Valuation | Primary Repositories / Notes |

Pop-culture memorabilia proved equally contentious. When the marriage dissolved, Tyler walked away with the bulk of the couple's Pokemon trading card collection, taking the rarest cards from the marital home. Alexandra testified that the remaining cards in her possession carried a value of $300, while estimating the bundle Tyler seized was worth between $1,000 and $3,000. The trial judge accepted her testimony, fixing the collection's total value at $1,800 and allocating $1,500 of that value against Tyler. Tyler cried foul, calling her estimate pure guesswork. The appeals panel shut down the grievance, noting state evidentiary law grants property owners direct standing to testify on the fair value of their own possessions.

Vehicle Debts and the Road Back to Court

Tyler stumbled on his remaining financial claims. He sought to saddle the marital estate with a purported $32,485 debt on a 2019 Jeep Compass, yet failed to submit basic loan agreements, lender identities, or interest schedules. During cross-examination, he wavered, suggesting the actual balance was closer to $20,000. The trial judge dismissed the claim as unreliable, ruling Tyler failed to show the loan served the joint marriage. The appellate panel affirmed the exclusion, alongside the trial court's $47,748.22 valuation of the marital share of Alexandra’s TIAA retirement account—a figure Tyler himself had cited during testimony.

While the asset allocations remain locked, the financial dispute is far from over. The Court of Appeals remanded the litigation to the trial court, ordering a judge to conduct fresh evaluations on whether Tyler must subsidize Alexandra's legal fees and forensic accounting costs.