In most places crypto is treated as property and can sit in an estate. A death certificate, a will or intestacy rules, and — where the heir is a minor — a guardian acting until adulthood, are the familiar legal path. That paperwork answers who is entitled. It does not move satoshis.
Bitcoin has no customer-service desk that reissues a forgotten seed phrase. Control is the private key (or the recovery words that recreate it). If those are gone, a perfect probate order still stares at an empty wallet. If they were never shared safely, the coins are effectively abandoned. That is the uncomfortable design trade-off of self-custody.
Owners who care about heirs plan both layers: legal instructions that a notary or solicitor can act on, and a practical access plan — sealed instructions in a safe, multi-signature setups that need more than one person, or a specialist digital-asset succession service where available. Heirs should ask the estate professional how digital assets are handled and hunt for hardware wallets, seed backups and exchange accounts. Never paste seed phrases into a “helpful” Telegram recovery bot; that is how estates get emptied twice.
This is general orientation, not estate-planning advice. Local rules differ. The constant is simple: without a path to the keys, inheritance is a certificate without a balance.
If someone is already offering to “unlock inherited crypto” for an upfront fee or a seed phrase, read Fake recovery and use Get help for reporting routes.
This article is for general information only. It is not legal or financial advice. Details change. If you have lost money, contact your bank or card issuer and use the routes on the help pages.