Documentation absent — hardware wallet (2025)

Blocked

Case description

A 2025 report by digital estate planning firm DG Legacy estimated that $140 billion in cryptocurrency assets were potentially locked away due to inheritance planning failures. The report cited as key failure patterns: owners failing to update their estate plans after migrating from exchange custody to self-custody, seed phrases stored in digital password managers that beneficiaries could not access, and technical knowledge asymmetries between holders and their designated heirs. The firm noted a particular challenge with hardware wallets found by heirs who did not know whether the device held Bitcoin or merely served as a backup, making it impossible to prioritise recovery efforts.

Custody context

Stress condition	Documentation absent
Custody system	Hardware wallet (single key)
Outcome	Blocked
Documentation	Unknown
Year observed	2025
Country	International

Structural dependencies observed

Single point of failure

What this illustrates

There was only one way in. When that path was gone, so was access. Access was not recoverable.

Outcome interpretation

Access was not possible under the reported conditions.

Source

Publicly Reported

Evidence type

News article

Evidence link

https://www.wealthmanagement.com/estate-planning/bitcoin-after-death-2025-estate-guide

Related cases involving documentation absent

193 cases involve documentation absent 274 cases involve hardware wallet (single key) View archive statistics →

This archive documents observed custody survivability failures. It does not attempt to document all Bitcoin losses or security incidents. Submit a case

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Framework references

Where Bitcoin Custody Intersects Legal and Fiduciary Authority

Where custody creates gaps in estate planning, fiduciary duty, and professional responsibility.

Professional Scope Boundary Matrix

What each professional or product covers, what they do not, and where gaps form between them.

The Independent Assessment Layer in Bitcoin Custody

How independent diagnostic layers emerge when multiple parties depend on shared infrastructure.