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Inheritance · First steps
My relative has died and had crypto: where to start
This situation has two parts that are best kept separate: finding the material, and having the right to use it. The first is a patient search you can do yourself. The second is a legal matter, and without resolving it no serious professional will work your case.
First: don’t touch the devices
Don’t reset phones or computers, don’t format them, don’t sell them and don’t give them away. Don’t try random codes on a hardware wallet: attempts are counted and they run out. Every one of those actions can permanently destroy what you are looking for.
What to look for, and where
- Papers with word lists: twelve or twenty-four loose words on a sheet, a notebook, a card or a metal plate. The most valuable thing you can find.
- Small USB-stick-like devices with a screen: those are hardware wallets.
- Documents in the safe, the deeds folder or the bank.
- Emails: search their account, if you have legal access, for exchange messages, purchase or send confirmations.
- Bank statements: a transfer to an exchange tells you where they bought and when.
- Computers and phones, untouched, to review later calmly.
- Notebooks and the inside covers of books.
Bank statements are the best starting point and hardly anyone starts there. A transfer to a platform tells you which platform, which date and how much, and from there much of the story can be reconstructed without touching a single device.
Two completely different routes
| What they had | Which route |
|---|---|
| An exchange account | A legal process with the company: death certificate and probate |
| A self-custody wallet with a phrase | Find the phrase: it is the only thing that opens it |
| A hardware wallet with no phrase | Only the PIN opens it. Without it, no way out |
| You only know they bought | Start with the bank and the email |
The legal part
If the material turns up, acting on it requires proving you have the right: death certificate, probate documentation and, depending on the case, the agreement of the other heirs. That isn’t bureaucracy for its own sake: without it, moving that money can cause serious problems, and no responsible professional will take part.
Exactly what documentation is needed and how to organise it is in crypto inheritance: what is needed to be able to recover.
In these situations people appear offering help, sometimes with a great deal of empathy. Nobody legitimate will ask you for the words you found, or for you to mail them the device, or for payment in advance. Read this before talking to anyone: how to tell a real service from a scam.