CustodyStress
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Part of the CustodyStress archive of observed Bitcoin custody incidents
CS-00288

An exchange account holder died in September 2015.

Survives
Case description
An exchange account holder died in September 2015. Their estate submitted a death certificate and power of attorney to the exchange's support team. The exchange's legal team required original notarised documents, not scans. Processing the original documents took three months due to international mail and notarisation requirements, during which the account remained inaccessible.
Custody context
Stress conditionOwner death
Custody systemExchange custody
OutcomeSurvives
DocumentationUnknown
Year observed2015
CountryUnknown
Structural dependencies observed
Single point of failureLegal process requiredUndocumented procedure
Outcome interpretation
Access remained possible under the reported conditions.
Source
Publicly Reported
Evidence type
Forum post
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Framework references
Terms guide
Survives
Access remained possible under the reported conditions.
Constrained
Access remained possible, but only with delay, dependence, or significant difficulty.
Blocked
Access was not possible under the reported conditions.
Indeterminate
There was not enough information to determine the outcome.
Single-person knowledge
Recovery depended on information or capability held by one individual who was unavailable.
Institutional dependence
Recovery depended on a third-party institution or service that was inaccessible or uncooperative.
Documentation gap
Recovery depended on instructions that were missing, incomplete, or unclear.
Authority mismatch
The person with legal authority to act did not have operational access, or vice versa.