The trustee firm merged with a competitor in June 2017 and the key was migrated to

Survives

Case description

A Bitcoin inheritance arrangement using a 1-of-2 multisig designed for survivorship had a key held by a professional trustee. The trustee firm merged with a competitor in June 2017 and the key was migrated to a new system. The migration process lost the key metadata needed to identify which client account it belonged to. Recovery required three months of forensic accounting.

Custody context

Stress condition	Multisig quorum failure
Custody system	Exchange custody
Outcome	Survives
Documentation	Unknown
Year observed	2017
Country	Unknown

Structural dependencies observed

Institutional cooperation requiredSingle point of failure

Outcome interpretation

Access remained possible under the reported conditions.

Source

Publicly Reported

Evidence type

Forum post

Evidence link

https://medium.com/@wayne_huang/rsa-2015-panel-bitcoin-s-future-threats-expert-s-roundtable-based-on-150-case-studies-92cc35e68e30

Related cases involving multisig quorum failure

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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.