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%)
An exchange account holder died in September 2015.
Exchange custody
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
A Bitcoin holder died intestate in 2015 with accounts on two exchanges.
Exchange custody
A Bitcoin holder died intestate in 2015 with accounts on two exchanges. One exchange had a documented estate access process; the other required a court order sp
An early Bitcoin miner died unexpectedly in January 2015.
Mobile or software wallet
An early Bitcoin miner died unexpectedly in January 2015. Family members found a USB drive labelled 'Bitcoin' but it was password protected with a Windows BitLo
Estate access failure — software wallet (2015)
Mobile or software wallet
A 2015 probate case involved the estate of a Bitcoin developer who had created multiple wallets over several years. The estate attorney located wallet files on
The estate attorney found a reference to 'wallet backup 2010' on a USB drive but
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin early adopter who died in 2015 had created a wallet in 2010 and used it regularly until 2013. Since then the wallet had been dormant. The estate attor
Owner death — software wallet (2015)
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin investor who had accumulated coins through a mining operation died in June 2015. The family knew about the Bitcoin holdings but the investor had insis
Owner death — exchange custody (2015)
Exchange custody
An exchange customer died in October 2015 leaving a will that bequeathed 'all cryptocurrency holdings' to their children. The exchange required each beneficiary
A Cryptsy account holder died in April 2015.
Exchange custody
A Cryptsy account holder died in April 2015. Their estate filed a claim with the exchange. Unknown to the estate, Cryptsy was already effectively insolvent at t
A 2014 estate case involved the death of a Bitcoin day trader.
Exchange custody
A 2014 estate case involved the death of a Bitcoin day trader. The deceased had accounts on four different exchanges under different email addresses. Their esta
Owner death — exchange custody (2014)
Exchange custody
Autumn Radtke, 28-year-old CEO of First Meta, a Singapore-based virtual currency exchange, died on 26 February 2014 in circumstances the Singapore coroner later
Owner death — exchange 2014
Exchange custody
Following the Mt. Gox collapse, a forum case documents the death of a Mt. Gox creditor before the bankruptcy claim deadline. Their estate attorney was unaware o
Estate access failure — software wallet (2014)
Mobile or software wallet
A 2014 probate case involved the estate of a Bitcoin investor who had accumulated significant holdings since 2012. The deceased had stored wallet access credent
Device discarded — software wallet (2014)
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin early adopter who died in 2014 left instructions for accessing their Bitcoin in a handwritten will addendum that referenced a USB drive 'in the study.
Owner death — exchange custody (2014)
Exchange custody
A documented 2014 case involved a user who died in an accident leaving BTC on three different exchanges. Their family knew about the BTC generally but did not k
An early Bitcoin miner died in December 2014, having accumulated coins since 2010.
Mobile or software wallet
An early Bitcoin miner died in December 2014, having accumulated coins since 2010. Their estate attorney discovered a reference to 'bitcoin' in handwritten note
Hidden wallet discovered — software wallet (2013)
Mobile or software wallet
The 2013 Bitcoin price run from $13 to over $1,000 prompted numerous reports of families discovering that a deceased relative had held significant Bitcoin. In c
Owner death — exchange custody (2013)
Exchange custody
In 2013 at least several documented cases arose of Bitcoin holders who died with exchange accounts their families could not access. Exchanges had no death-discl
Estate access failure — software wallet (2013)
Mobile or software wallet
In 2013 several probate cases emerged in the US involving Bitcoin holders who had died without disclosing wallet access information. Attorneys handling estates
Owner death — software wallet (2013)
Mobile or software wallet
A 2013 Bitcoin holder who died after Ulbricht's arrest had been an active Silk Road vendor. Their estate included a substantial Bitcoin balance across several w
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