Bitcoin Probate Authority Limits

Probate Authority Limits for Self-Custody Assets

This memo is published by CustodyStress, an independent Bitcoin custody stress test that produces reference documents for individuals, families, and professionals.

What Probate Does

A person dies. An executor is appointed through probate. The executor has court documents granting legal authority over the estate. The estate includes Bitcoin. The executor cannot access the Bitcoin.

The Bitcoin remains inaccessible.

This memo describes the structural mismatch between probate authority and Bitcoin access. It explains why court recognition does not translate into technical control, and what executors encounter when they stand between a legal mandate and a cryptographic system that does not recognize mandates.

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What Probate Does

Probate is a legal process that validates a will, appoints someone to administer an estate, and supervises the distribution of assets to beneficiaries. The court confirms who has authority to act, resolves disputes, and ensures debts and taxes are paid before inheritance occurs.

For most assets, probate authority is sufficient. The executor presents letters testamentary to a bank, and the bank grants access to accounts. The executor presents documentation to a brokerage, and the brokerage transfers securities. Institutions recognize court authority because they operate within the legal system that grants it.

Probate assumes that assets are held by institutions that respond to legal process. A bank account exists because a bank maintains it. A stock position exists because a brokerage records it. These institutions are subject to laws, regulations, and court orders. When a court says the executor has authority, the institution complies.

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What Bitcoin Does Not Do

Bitcoin is not held by an institution. It exists on a decentralized network that no single entity controls. There is no Bitcoin company to contact. There is no customer service number to call. There is no compliance department that responds to court orders.

The Bitcoin network does not know what probate is. It does not recognize executors, administrators, or beneficiaries. It does not read death certificates or letters testamentary. It responds only to valid cryptographic signatures produced by whoever holds the private keys.

A court can declare that an executor has authority over Bitcoin in an estate. The Bitcoin network does not receive this declaration. It continues operating exactly as before, waiting for a valid signature that only the private keys can produce.

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The Executor's Position

An executor appointed to administer an estate containing Bitcoin occupies an uncomfortable position. The legal system has granted authority. The technical system has not granted access. These are different things, and no legal process converts one into the other.

An executor may have a fiduciary duty to locate, secure, and distribute estate assets. Court documents may prove legal authority. Estate documents may mention Bitcoin and name beneficiaries. These do not produce technical control when custody artifacts such as seed phrases or private keys are unavailable.

The executor's authority is real within the legal system. Banks, brokerages, and government agencies recognize it. But the Bitcoin network is not within the legal system. It is a protocol running on computers around the world, and it does not check credentials.

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When Bitcoin Appears in Estate Documents

The deceased's will mentions Bitcoin. The estate inventory lists cryptocurrency as an asset. Tax returns show capital gains from Bitcoin sales. There is clear documentation that Bitcoin exists.

This documentation proves existence. It does not provide access.

An executor finds a will that says: "I leave my Bitcoin holdings to my daughter." The executor now knows Bitcoin exists and who it goes to. The executor does not know where the Bitcoin is held, how much there is, or how to access it. The will provides intent without providing the operational path to fulfill that intent.

Estate documents that acknowledge Bitcoin often create a gap between expectation and capability. Beneficiaries see their inheritance named. Executors see their responsibility defined. Neither sees how to actually reach the funds.

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What Executors Search For

An executor looking for Bitcoin access searches for custody artifacts: seed phrases, private keys, hardware wallets, passwords to software wallets, credentials for exchange accounts. These are the things that actually produce access. Court documents are not among them.

The search often begins with papers—files, folders, safes, safe deposit boxes. Executors look for anything that resembles a list of words, a long string of characters, or a reference to cryptocurrency. They check computers and phones for wallet applications. They review email for exchange account confirmations.

This search is conducted by someone who may not understand what they are looking for. An executor who has never used Bitcoin may not recognize a seed phrase when they see it. They may find a slip of paper with 24 words and not understand its significance. They may find a hardware wallet and think it is a USB drive.

The search may find everything and still fail. An executor might locate a hardware wallet but not know the PIN. They might find a seed phrase that restores an empty wallet because a passphrase was also used. They might find exchange account information but lack access to the email or phone needed for two-factor authentication.

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When Exchanges Are Involved

If the deceased held Bitcoin on an exchange—Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, or others—the situation is slightly different. Exchanges are institutions. They have customer service. They respond to legal process.

Executors can contact exchanges with death certificates and probate documents. Exchanges have procedures for deceased account holders. They will verify the executor's authority and may eventually grant access to the account.

This process is not instant. Exchanges have compliance requirements, identity verification procedures, and legal teams that review requests. The timeline may be weeks or months. The requirements may vary by jurisdiction. The exchange may request documents the executor does not have or cannot easily obtain.

And the exchange can only help if an account exists. If the deceased moved Bitcoin off the exchange into personal custody, the exchange has nothing. If the deceased used an exchange that has since shut down, the path is unclear. If the deceased used a foreign exchange that does not recognize the executor's jurisdiction, the process becomes more complicated.

Exchange-held Bitcoin is an exception where probate authority has some purchase. Self-custodied Bitcoin—held in hardware wallets, software wallets, or paper backups—is not.

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The Court Cannot Compel Access

A court can compel people and institutions to act. It can order a bank to release funds. It can order a person to turn over property. It can hold parties in contempt for failing to comply.

A court cannot compel the Bitcoin network to do anything. The network is not a person or institution. It is software running on thousands of computers in dozens of countries. No court order changes how it operates.

If a person holds the keys and refuses to cooperate, a court can apply pressure—fines, contempt, imprisonment. But if no person holds the keys, or if the keys are lost, no amount of legal pressure produces access. The court's power extends to people, not protocols.

An executor discovers that the deceased's Bitcoin is in a wallet controlled by a seed phrase that no one can find. The executor petitions the court for guidance. The court can issue orders, but no order conjures a seed phrase into existence. The Bitcoin remains frozen regardless of how many legal documents accumulate.

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The Timeline Mismatch

Probate operates on a legal timeline. Courts have schedules. Documents require filing. Hearings are set weeks or months in advance. Creditors have claim periods. The process is measured in months, sometimes years.

Bitcoin access operates on a technical timeline. If you have the keys, access is immediate. If you do not, access may never happen regardless of how much time passes.

These timelines do not coordinate. An executor may spend months navigating probate, establishing authority, and documenting the estate, only to discover at the end that the Bitcoin is inaccessible. The probate process completed successfully. The access problem was never solved.

Conversely, an heir who has the seed phrase can move the Bitcoin immediately, without waiting for probate. The legal process may still be required for proper estate administration, but the technical ability to act exists independently. This creates scenarios where funds can be moved before authority is legally established, or authority can be legally established while funds remain immovable.

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What Probate Produces

Probate produces legal authority: the right to act on behalf of the estate, to sign documents, to make decisions, to distribute assets. It produces a record that can be presented to institutions.

Probate does not produce custody artifacts. It does not generate seed phrases. It does not reveal passwords. It does not unlock hardware wallets. The things that produce Bitcoin access existed before probate began, and probate does not create them.

An executor who completes probate has everything the legal system can provide. Whether that is enough to access the Bitcoin depends entirely on what the deceased left behind outside the legal system—in safes, on paper, in devices, in memory.

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Two Parallel Processes

Estate administration involving Bitcoin runs on two parallel tracks. One track is legal: probate, authority, documentation, distribution according to law. The other track is technical: finding keys, understanding custody structures, producing valid signatures.

Success on one track does not guarantee success on the other. An executor can complete probate flawlessly and still have no access. Conversely, an heir can have full technical access and still be legally obligated to wait for probate before acting.

The tracks interact only at specific points. Exchanges may require probate documents before releasing accounts. Institutions may need proof of executor authority. But for self-custodied Bitcoin, the legal track and the technical track run independently. Neither advances the other.

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Summary

Probate grants legal authority over an estate. The Bitcoin network does not recognize legal authority. These two systems operate independently, and success in one does not produce success in the other.

Executors with full court-granted authority still cannot access Bitcoin without the custody artifacts—seed phrases, keys, passwords—that produce technical control. Probate is a parallel process to access, not a path toward it. The legal question of who has authority and the technical question of who can move funds are answered in different systems that do not communicate with each other.

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System Context

Examining Bitcoin Custody Under Stress

Who Can Legally Act on My Bitcoin If Incapacitated

Multiple People Claim Bitcoin Authority as a Resolution Vacuum

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