Whether you were an early adopter and have a trove of bitcoin holdings or a grandchild persuaded you to take a flyer on a coin or an NFT, intergenerational wealth transfers these days often includes crypto. Not long ago, families with crypto faced a fair amount of uncertainty, says a recent article from Coin Desk, “Millions in crypto wealth at risk of vanishing when holders die. Here’s how to protect it.”
Today, rules around wills and trusts have been updated to include digital assets. However, even with improved regulatory clarity, digital assets still add a layer of complexity for many people. Today, more than 50 million Americans have crypto and estate planning needs to reflect this new asset class.
The first thing to know is how the cryptocurrency is stored. Custody is a key component for crypto, as control is governed by closely guarded codes, which consist of a long alphanumeric string of digits known as keys. Keys are often shared with digital asset custodians, such as platforms like Coinbase, crypto exchanges, or cryptocurrency specialists like Bitgo or Fireblocks. Crypto can also be stored in a hardware device. Some crypto holders also prefer to have the keys printed out on paper and held in a safe.
The law governing digital assets, RUFADAA (the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act) made some parts of inheriting crypto easier. It gives executors and trustees access to digital assets in the same way as traditional assets. With the right documentation, a custodian must grant an executor or a trustee access to a decedent’s digital assets. Before RUFADAA, this was not required by law.
Despite this, millions in crypto wealth go missing every year. Leaving property or mutual funds is a straightforward process if proper estate planning is done. However, probate delays, missing private keys, or fiduciaries who aren’t knowledgeable about crypto can lead to significant wealth being lost. An executor who doesn’t know about online transactions, cold wallets, blockchain assets and more won’t be able to manage a crypto asset after the owner dies.
People who hold digital assets tend to eschew hard copies in favor of storing information in emails or on drives. If someone doesn’t have the passwords or keys, it will be next to impossible for them to retrieve the assets.
if there’s no will, things get even more challenging. If the estate goes through probate because there is no will, it may take six to ten months for the court to appoint an administrator. In the meantime, no one is managing the crypto, which is highly volatile.
There are planning strategies using trusts to transfer ownership. This way, the trustee has access to the crypto right away and doesn’t have to wait for the court to grant the authority to act. It may also be worth forming a Limited Liability Company as a shell, placing the crypto into the LLC, and then easily transferring it to the trust at the appropriate time.
An important point to remember in most states, a will becomes a public document once it is filed with the court and enters probate. Information about crypto accounts, keys, cold wallets, etc., should never, under any circumstances, be included in the will.
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Reference: Coin Desk (Jan. 27, 2026) “Millions in crypto wealth at risk of vanishing when holders die. Here’s how to protect it”
