Part of the CustodyStress archive of observed Bitcoin custody incidents
Owner death
Cases in this category involve Bitcoin held by an owner who has since died. Access depended on recovery procedures, documentation, or designated individuals who were either unavailable or unaware of their role.
Owner death cases reveal the gap between legal inheritance and operational custody access. In most cases, heirs have clear legal entitlement to the Bitcoin but lack the operational knowledge required to execute recovery. The custody system functions as designed — it simply was not designed to be operated by anyone other than the original owner.
119 observed cases
Blocked
51 (43%)
Constrained
24 (20%)
Survives
38 (32%)
Indeterminate
6 (5%)
The estate value at 2025 Bitcoin prices was approximately $2.3 million.
Hardware wallet (single key)
A 2025 estate case involved a Bitcoin holder who had purchased a significant amount of Bitcoin in 2013 and held it continuously in a self-custody wallet. The es
The specialist was able to identify the correct derivation path and successfully
Hardware wallet (single key)
A September 2025 Bitcoin estate case involved a California holder who had stored their seed phrase in a physical vault at a bank branch. The vault had been open
Owner death — hardware wallet (2025)
Hardware wallet (single key)
A 2025 report by Ledger estimated that between 2.3 and 4 million Bitcoin—representing 11–18% of total supply—had been permanently lost, with owner deaths withou
Owner death — hardware wallet (2025)
Hardware wallet (single key)
A 2025 German estate case involved a holder who had stored their Bitcoin seed phrase using a proprietary splitting scheme that divided the 24 words into three g
A family member later discovered that the holder had been posting about Bitcoin on
Hardware wallet (single key)
A 2025 UK estate case involved a holder who had purchased Bitcoin through Coinbase in 2018 and subsequently transferred all of it to a self-custody hardware wal
An Australian estate case in 2025 involved a deceased holder with a Binance account.
Exchange custody
An Australian estate case in 2025 involved a deceased holder with a Binance account. Binance's Australian entity had undergone restructuring in 2024 following t
The account held approximately $85,000 in Bitcoin.
Exchange custody
A 2025 estate case in Texas involved a deceased holder whose Coinbase account was located through tax records showing crypto-related income. The executor obtain
Owner death — hardware wallet (2025)
Hardware wallet (single key)
A 2025 Canadian estate case involved a holder who had created a custom mnemonic scheme—rather than a standard BIP39 seed phrase, they had used a self-invented w
Destroyed in fire — hardware wallet (2025)
Hardware wallet (single key)
A 2025 Florida probate case described by a digital estate planning attorney involved a deceased holder who had been meticulous about documenting their Bitcoin c
Estate access failure — hardware wallet (2025)
Hardware wallet (single key)
A 2025 estate case described by a digital estate specialist involved a holder in Oregon who had stored their entire Bitcoin custody setup inside a Veracrypt-enc
Estate access failure — Kraken (2025)
Exchange custody
A 2025 Kraken estate access case involved an executor who discovered that the deceased holder had registered their Kraken account under a pseudonym that did not
Owner death — hardware wallet (2025)
Hardware wallet (single key)
A 2025 analysis cited in multiple estate planning publications estimated that between $140 billion and $200 billion in Bitcoin—representing 17–23% of circulatin
Coinbase required a death certificate plus letters testamentary, typically a 4–8 week
Exchange custody
A 2024 analysis of exchange estate access procedures by a digital estate planning firm found significant variation across major platforms. Coinbase required a d
The wallet showed a balance of 4.7 BTC.
Hardware wallet (single key)
A 2024 estate case in New York involved a deceased holder whose family found a laminated card in a safety deposit box with a 24-word seed phrase. The seed phras
Owner death — hardware wallet 2024
Hardware wallet (single key)
An estate case described by a digital asset attorney in early 2024 involved a holder who had used a brain wallet—a private key derived deterministically from a
Estate access failure — hardware wallet (2024)
Hardware wallet (single key)
A 2024 probate case in California involved a deceased holder whose will mentioned 'Bitcoin in a cold wallet' as part of their estate. The executor located three
Estate access failure — hardware wallet (2024)
Hardware wallet (single key)
A 2024 UK probate case described by a digital asset estate specialist involved a deceased holder who had stored their Bitcoin seed phrase as a LUKS-encrypted fi
Owner death — hardware wallet (2024)
Hardware wallet (single key)
A 2024 case involved a Florida estate where the deceased had left detailed estate planning documents—a formal Bitcoin inheritance letter, device locations, and
Owner death — 2-of-3 multisig (2024)
Hardware wallet (single key)
A 2024 case involved a Bitcoin holder who had been meticulous about security but had not planned for incapacity or death. They had used a 2-of-3 multisignature
Owner death — Kraken (2024)
Exchange custody
A 2024 exchange estate access case on Kraken involved a beneficiary who held the deceased's death certificate and a copy of the will but encountered a verificat
Estate access failure — Coinbase (2024)
Exchange custody
An Australian estate case in 2024 involved a deceased holder whose Coinbase account was identified by their executor but who had used a mobile phone number for
Estate access failure — exchange custody (2024)
Exchange custody
As the 2024 bull market drove Bitcoin toward new highs, digital asset estate attorneys reported a significant rise in estate access engagements involving exchan
The Bitcoin address was visible on the blockchain but the key was gone.
Hardware wallet (single key)
A 2023 case described by a digital asset estate attorney involved a holder who had set up Bitcoin self-custody during the 2020-2021 bull market using a mobile a
Hidden wallet discovered — Trezor (2023)
Hardware wallet (single key)
A UK executor in 2023 found a Trezor hardware wallet and a hand-written list of 24 words among the belongings of a deceased relative. Three months into attempti
Destroyed in fire — hardware wallet (2023)
Hardware wallet (single key)
A 2023 estate case documented by a digital asset recovery professional involved a holder who had used Shamir's Secret Sharing to split their seed phrase across
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