加密货币遗产：你的继承人能追回什么

Cryptocurrency inheritance has officially become a service.

On September 29, 2026, Uphold launched a paid service that allows users to designate beneficiaries who can inherit the cryptocurrencies they hold. This is a real need. According to data from Fidelity, as of June 2025, at least 17% of Bitcoin had been inactive for over ten years. The asset management company noted that some of these tokens are in an unknown state, possibly lost or inaccessible.

Key points:

• 17%: Percentage of Bitcoin that has not been traded for at least ten years, as of June 2025 (Source: Fidelity).
• 1 to 2 months: Time required for Binance to process inheritance requests within its application.
• Unrecoverable: Without a recovery phrase, no wallet manufacturer can retrieve your cryptocurrencies.
• $215 million: Amount owed by QuadrigaCX to its customers after the founder’s death. The reason was fraud, not loss of keys.

Inheritance of cryptocurrencies managed by platforms: The way cryptocurrencies are inherited depends on where they are stored. On exchange platforms, accounts belong to identified customers. Therefore, heirs can claim those accounts just like third-party wallets.

The documents required for large-scale platforms are generally similar: a death certificate, documents specifying the heir or executor, and identification documents. At Kraken, the legal representative also needs to send a signed letter. Coinbase, on the other hand, currently does not support the designation of beneficiaries within individual accounts.

The processing time varies depending on the platform. Binance is the only platform that has specified a timeline for inheritance processing; it takes approximately “1 to 2 months.” On both Coinbase and Binance, the heirs must also have accounts on the same platform. In Europe, the Dutch platform Bitvavo transfers funds to a single heir, provided that a declaration of inheritance is provided.

With personal wallets, there is no right to inherit if there is no mnemonic phrase

. When using a personal wallet, the situation is completely different. No one holds an account in your name. Only a mnemonic phrase—a set of 12 or 24 words—can unlock the funds.

If your Trezor hardware wallet and backup files disappear, there is no way to restore your account. This is clearly stated in the Trezor official blog. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also expressed the same view in its guidelines for December 2025: Losing your private key means permanently losing access to your cryptocurrencies. Cold wallets can effectively prevent hacker attacks, but they cannot protect against forgetting.

Although it’s difficult to accurately measure the extent of these losses, the trend is clear. In 2017, Chainalysis estimated that the number of Bitcoin lost ranged from 2.78 million to 3.79 million units (according to Fortune magazine). Fidelity, on the other hand, focused on tracking the number of Bitcoins that remained unused over a decade: as of June 2025, these tokens accounted for more than 17% of the total supply. However, only a portion of these tokens were actually lost; this figure also includes those attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto.

The most well-known case is that of the Canadian platform QuadrigaCX. Its founder, Gerald Cotten, passed away in India on December 9, 2018. At that time, QuadrigaCX owed more than 76,000 customers a total of $215 million. For many years, people believed that these funds remained hidden in a wallet that only he had access to.

However, an investigation conducted by the Ontario Securities Commission in June 2020 dismissed this theory. The report stated that QuadrigaCX’s collapse was caused by fraudulent activities carried out by its co-founder and CEO, Gerald Cotten. Approximately $115 million disappeared through fraudulent transactions within the platform. According to CBC reports, customers ultimately recovered only 13% of their assets. This case highlights the risks associated with poorly regulated platforms, rather than improper cryptocurrency inheritance planning.

Laws vary from country to country regarding the inheritance of cryptocurrencies. In such cases, tokens are treated as part of the inheritance, similar to bank accounts or stocks. They are typically valued at the price on the day of death, which serves as the basis for taxation when they are sold later.

Country Inheritance tax status The cost basis for heirs France Must file a tax return within 6 months; the value is calculated based on the date of death The purchase price equals the value reported in the tax return United States Considered ordinary assets; the federal exemption amount exceeds $15 million by 2026 The cost basis is reset to the value on the date of death United Kingdom Included in the estate; a 40% tax is levied on amounts exceeding £325,000 Report the value on the date of death to the tax authorities Germany According to a ruling in 2018, online accounts are passed on to heirs Heirs follow the purchase date of the deceased Portugal Stamp duty must be paid; spouses and children are exempt The administrative department has not provided clear instructions

Source of information: BOFiP, service-public.gouv.fr, IRS, HMRC, German Federal Financial Court, Autoridade Tributária.

Within the EU, inheritance is governed by the laws of the country where the deceased resided. In contrast, the European Cryptocurrency Regulations (MiCA) do not specify procedures for deceased clients. The UK recognized digital assets as property in a law passed on December 2, 2025. In France, a law passed on June 25, 2026, extended the tax filing period for cryptocurrencies held by foreigners that were not reported in the estate to ten years (according to notaries).

It’s important to prepare for cryptocurrency inheritance without exposing the keys.

The top advice given by notaries is to create a detailed list of all cryptocurrencies held. The Guelder Notary Association recommends listing these assets in detail during one’s lifetime. They also emphasize that such a list would be useless if the means of accessing these assets weren’t also provided together with the list.

Never write down mnemonic phrases in your will. In England and Wales, once the court initiates the inheritance process, the will becomes public documents. The same rules apply in courts in New York State.

There are tools available that allow sharing access rights without giving them to just one person:

• Partitioned backups: Trezor allows for splitting backups into multiple parts; for example, three out of five parts can be used for recovery.
• Multi-signature vaults: Services like Casa, Unchained, or Nunchuk distribute keys among you, close relatives, and the service provider. With Casa, beneficiaries must wait for a six-month inactive period before taking action.
• Built-in inheritance functionality: Block’s wallet, Bitkey, also requires a six-month waiting period. Uphold charges a monthly fee of $19.99 for its services.

These services are mostly paid services, and depend partly on trust in the service provider. Ledger Recover, which is often mentioned, stores mnemonic phrases, but its terms do not include functionality for transferring keys to heirs.

Be cautious of fraud-related services targeting heirs.

最后，受阻的加密货币继承会吸引骗子。联邦调查局（FBI）警告称，承诺预先收费以恢复加密货币的公司涉嫌欺诈。根据其2023年8月的意见，私营企业无权命令扣押加密货币。美国消费者金融保护局（FTC）也建议，切勿支付给主动提供此类帮助的个人。

对于您的亲人而言，唯一可靠的途径是通过平台本身，或利用您为他们准备的访问权限。我们关于最安全加密货币钱包的指南详细介绍了存储选项。

2026年7月16日，欧洲法律研究所通过了引用加密货币的数字遗产示范规则。但这些规则仅在国家级或欧洲级立法者采纳后才适用。