After someone dies, families often expect the hard part to be paperwork: death certificates, phone calls, and a stack of accounts that need to be closed or transferred. Crypto adds a different kind of stress. There might be no monthly statement, no “account number” written on a form, and no bank representative who can reset a password. And yet the question is painfully simple: if your loved one owned cryptocurrency, how do you find it, and how do you recover access without doing anything that could put the estate at risk?
This guide is written for real families and executors who are trying to do the right thing. It focuses on cryptocurrency inheritance as a practical, lawful process: locating possible wallets and exchanges, preserving evidence, and working through legitimate channels when credentials exist. It also explains what to do when credentials do not exist, when to involve an attorney or professional fiduciary, and how to protect your family from scams that target grief.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, start here: most crypto “inheritance failures” are not about court authority. They happen because nobody can find the accounts, devices, or recovery information in time. That’s why the first goal is discovery, not access.
Why crypto is different in an estate
Crypto is not one thing. It can live in a custodial account at an exchange (where the company controls the keys), or it can be held in self-custody (where the owner controls the keys). The difference matters because it changes what “recovery” looks like. With an exchange, the executor can usually submit a claim with legal documents and the platform’s support team may transfer or liquidate the assets according to its procedures. With self-custody, the ability to move funds depends on having the private key, seed phrase, or device passcode. Without those, the assets may be effectively unrecoverable—even if everyone agrees the heirs are entitled to them.
That reality is part of why crypto is still widely misunderstood. Ownership is spreading, but confidence is mixed. According to Pew Research Center, a majority of U.S. adults say they are not confident in the safety and reliability of cryptocurrency, and their survey details how experiences and attitudes vary by demographic group. The practical implication for families is straightforward: many people hold crypto quietly, with minimal documentation, because they are unsure how to talk about it or plan for it.
And the risks are not theoretical. Crypto fraud has grown into a major threat, especially around moments of urgency and confusion. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reports record losses across internet crime categories, and the FBI’s IC3 publishes guidance and public safety announcements on cryptocurrency scam patterns. For example, IC3 guidance for cryptocurrency scam victims warns people to be wary of “recovery” offers and to report suspected scams through official channels. More recently, Chainalysis estimated that crypto scams and fraud stole roughly $17 billion in 2025, emphasizing how impersonation and AI-assisted schemes are accelerating. If you are handling an estate, you should assume scammers may try to insert themselves into the process.
Start with lawful authority and a calm preservation mindset
Before you try to log into anything, take a breath and treat the situation like you would any other financial asset: preserve, document, and proceed with authority. If you are the executor or administrator, your “power” usually comes from letters testamentary or letters of administration (or a small-estate procedure, depending on your state). If you are a spouse or adult child trying to help, you may still be able to do valuable discovery work, but the moment you cross into contacting institutions or requesting access, proof of authority matters.
This is where digital-asset law enters the conversation. Many states have adopted versions of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, commonly called RUFADAA, which creates a framework for fiduciaries to manage digital assets and request disclosure in defined circumstances. The Uniform Law Commission maintains the model act and resources that states use when adopting it. In plain language: your legal role matters, the decedent’s instructions matter, and platforms often have procedures that must be followed even when you have court authority.
If you need a broader grounding in how executors operate and what probate does (and doesn’t) control, Funeral.com has plain-language guides that can help you feel steadier while you tackle complex accounts. Many families start with Estate Planning Basics After a Death and Probate 101, then move into digital specifics once the legal foundation is in place.
How to find crypto after someone dies: where families actually discover it
Most families don’t “find a wallet” first. They find a clue. A new device on a desk. A hardware wallet in a drawer. An email from an exchange. A notebook with twelve or twenty-four words scribbled on the inside cover. Your job is to gently widen those clues without destroying evidence or triggering security locks.
Here are the places that most commonly lead to discovery, especially when you are trying to locate bitcoin wallet activity or confirm whether crypto exists at all.
- Paper records: tax documents, printed transaction confirmations, handwritten notes, safe deposit box inventories, or a “digital assets” folder.
- Devices: phones, laptops, tablets, external drives, and old computers that may store wallet apps or browser extensions.
- Email and cloud storage: inbox search for exchange names, “wallet,” “seed,” “recovery phrase,” “2FA,” “verification,” “withdrawal,” and transaction receipts.
- Bank and card statements: recurring purchases or transfers to major exchanges can reveal where to submit an estate claim.
- Physical security locations: fireproof boxes, safes, and the places people hide “important papers” during emergencies.
Notice what’s missing: guessing passwords, trying random logins, or downloading “recovery tools” you found in a forum. That is where families can accidentally lock accounts, compromise evidence, or expose the estate to theft. If your loved one used a password manager, it may contain the cleanest map of their online life. Funeral.com’s digital legacy guides are designed for exactly this moment, including Digital Accounts After a Death and Storing Passwords and Digital Legacy Details.
Hardware wallets and self-custody: what you can and can’t do
If you find a small device that looks like a USB stick with a screen—often associated with brands like Ledger or Trezor—you may have discovered the core of a self-custody setup. Families often search terms like find hardware wallet ledger trezor because the device feels like “proof” of ownership. It is proof of possibility, not proof of access.
For self-custody, access usually depends on one of two things: the wallet’s recovery phrase (often 12 or 24 words) or an already-unlocked device with the keys available. The recovery phrase is not just a “password.” It can be the master key. Anyone who obtains it can potentially move funds. That’s why the safest approach is to treat it like cash: limit who sees it, avoid photographing it, and store it securely while you consult the estate’s attorney about proper handling.
When families ask about recover seed phrase legally, the honest answer is that there is no lawful “back door” in most self-custody situations. If the phrase or key is truly missing, no company can reset it for you. If the phrase exists but is stored somewhere you have not found yet, the work becomes careful discovery—searching records, locating the right notebook, identifying a safety deposit box, or finding the person your loved one trusted with the information.
There is one more complication: some people used multi-signature wallets, secret sharing, or institutional custody for large holdings. In those cases, “recovery” may involve multiple parties and formal verification. This is where a professional fiduciary or attorney becomes especially valuable, because you may be coordinating with custodians, trustees, or business partners who have their own compliance steps.
Custodial accounts: contacting exchanges and submitting estate claims
If you find evidence of an exchange account—an app on a phone, an email confirmation, a bank transfer, or a recurring subscription—the path is typically more structured. You will gather documentation and submit a claim through the platform’s official support channel. For example, Coinbase publishes guidance for claiming a decedent’s account and notes that estate planning documents or state intestate laws dictate ownership transfer. Kraken explains that it does not offer beneficiary nominations in the usual sense and directs families to submit a request to its compliance team when a client passes away. Binance describes an “Inheritance Appeal” process for requesting a transfer of a deceased user’s assets.
These examples highlight an important point for access crypto exchange account after death: each platform is different, and procedures change. Always use the exchange’s official help center and official support contact methods. Do not rely on someone messaging you “from support” on social media or a phone number that showed up in a sponsored search result.
In practice, exchanges commonly ask for some combination of the following: a death certificate, your government-issued identification, proof of authority (letters testamentary/administration or a court order), and details that help them identify the account (registered email, phone number, account ID). If you are early in the process and not yet court-appointed, it can still help to gather the evidence that an account exists so your attorney can move quickly once authority is in place.
An executor crypto checklist that won’t create new problems
It’s tempting to turn this into a scavenger hunt. Instead, think of it as careful estate administration. A strong executor crypto checklist should reduce risk while increasing clarity.
- Make an inventory of what you find, including device types, app names, and any exchange evidence, without sharing sensitive information widely.
- Secure devices (and chargers) in a safe location; if possible, prevent automatic updates or remote wiping until you understand what is on them.
- Search the email inbox for exchange names, “withdrawal,” “deposit,” “verification,” “KYC,” “2FA,” and “wallet.”
- Check bank and card statements for transfers or purchases linked to exchanges.
- Contact exchanges only through official channels and only when you have or are obtaining proof of authority.
- Pause any “helper” services that ask you to upload seed phrases, pay upfront fees, or share remote access to a computer.
To keep everything organized alongside the rest of the estate’s responsibilities, it helps to follow a broader roadmap for the first days and weeks after death. Many families begin with What to Do When Someone Dies: A Step-by-Step Checklist and then add digital tasks using End-of-Life Planning Checklist as a model for what should exist (even if your loved one didn’t leave it).
Probate cryptocurrency and the legal reality of “access”
The phrase probate cryptocurrency can be misleading because probate does not magically unlock accounts. Probate establishes who has authority to act and who is entitled to receive property. For custodial exchange accounts, that authority is often enough to trigger a support process that results in a transfer. For self-custody, authority may clarify ownership but still not provide a technical way in.
That’s why “digital assets estate” planning matters so much. Even outside crypto, families routinely deal with closed systems: email accounts that can’t be accessed, photos stored in a locked cloud, subscriptions that keep billing. Funeral.com’s Digital Legacy Planning guide explains how to document and store critical details so survivors aren’t left guessing. Crypto simply raises the stakes because the “keys” can be the asset itself.
If you are in the middle of administration and trying to keep family relationships steady, remember that uncertainty can look like secrecy, even when you are acting responsibly. Funeral.com’s piece on Inheritance Conflict and Grief is a compassionate reminder that clear communication—what you’ve found, what you haven’t, and what happens next—often prevents misunderstandings from becoming lasting damage.
When to involve an attorney or professional fiduciary
You do not need to be a crypto expert to handle an estate, but you do need to know when you are out of depth. Consider involving a trusts-and-estates attorney (or a professional fiduciary) when any of the following are true: the holdings appear substantial; there are signs of business-related crypto activity; there are multiple heirs disputing control; the estate crosses state lines; or you have located evidence of a complex custody arrangement (multi-signature, institutional custody, or a trust).
An attorney can also help you navigate how state law interacts with digital-asset disclosure, including RUFADAA-related requests, and can ensure you don’t accidentally violate privacy laws or terms-of-service rules while trying to gather information. If your goal is to do everything cleanly, getting legal guidance early can be less expensive than fixing a mistake later.
How to avoid scams during cryptocurrency inheritance
Scammers love a story with urgency: “Your loved one’s funds are at risk,” “the account will be deleted,” “we can recover your wallet in 24 hours.” Grief makes urgency feel even sharper. The safest posture is skepticism, especially when someone tries to move you off official channels.
The FBI’s IC3 publishes ongoing alerts and public safety announcements about cryptocurrency scams and recovery fraud. For example, IC3 warnings about fund-recovery impersonation tactics describe how fraudsters pose as professionals to further defraud victims. And Chainalysis notes that impersonation scams surged dramatically in 2025 as criminals combined social engineering with AI-driven tactics. In an estate context, that can look like a fake “exchange support” email, a phone call pretending to be from a bank’s fraud department, or a “recovery specialist” who asks for seed phrases.
A good rule is simple: nobody legitimate needs your seed phrase. If someone asks for it, stop. Use the official help center of the exchange, confirm you’re on the right domain, and consult your attorney before sharing sensitive information.
If you are unsure how to store or handle the broader digital footprint while you work, Funeral.com’s credit freeze and identity theft guide can help you protect the estate from “ghosting” and other post-mortem fraud patterns that often travel with digital accounts.
What crypto estate planning can learn from this moment
If you are reading this because you are planning ahead, take this as a compassionate warning: your loved ones will not have your mental map. They will not know which app you used, which email is tied to your accounts, or where you stored your recovery phrase. They will only have what you leave behind—ideally in a format that is secure, updated, and legally usable.
Crypto estate planning does not mean writing passwords in a notebook and hoping for the best. For many people, it looks like a documented inventory of accounts and custody types, a secure system for storing or transferring access information, and clear instructions about who should act and how. Funeral.com’s end-of-life planning resources can help you build that system into a broader plan that covers the realities families face: medical decisions, legal documents, and the digital accounts that run modern life. Many people start with End-of-Life Planning Checklist, then refine their digital plan using Important Papers to Organize.
If you are in the middle of grief right now, you don’t have to solve everything today. Your next best step is usually to secure what you’ve found, document what you know, and move forward through official channels with the right authority. Crypto can feel like a hidden world, but the process of handling it can be grounded in the same values that guide every responsible estate: honesty, patience, and protection.
And if the work becomes heavy—technically or emotionally—let yourself get help. Doing this carefully is not a sign of mistrust. It’s a way of honoring someone’s life and safeguarding what they meant to leave behind.
