In short
Secure the devices and papers. Tell as few people as possible. Don’t type seed words anywhere. Don’t pay anyone who offers help. Then work through it slowly with the executor.
First: there’s no need to rush
Crypto in a wallet stays where it is. Crypto on an exchange stays in the account. Nothing has to happen in hours or days, and anyone who tells you otherwise is probably trying to get something from you. The real deadlines run in months or years: tax and legal deadlines for the estate, which the lawyer or notary will track, and unclaimed-property rules under which an exchange account left dormant for years can be handed over to the state. And a wallet whose seed words other people have seen isn’t safe until the coins are moved to a new one.
In the first days
- Secure the physical things. Phones, laptops, USB sticks, small devices that look like USB sticks or tiny phones (hardware wallets), notebooks, envelopes, metal plates or cards with lists of words on them. Put them together somewhere safe and lockable. Don’t try PIN codes yet: hardware wallets wipe themselves after a limited number of wrong PINs (on a Ledger, three).
- Look for instructions. A letter, a notebook, an envelope with the will or in a safe. Also check with the lawyer or notary who holds the will.
- Keep quiet online. Don’t post on social media or forums that someone left crypto. Scammers watch for exactly those posts.
- Keep the phone number alive. Many exchanges send login codes by text message, and a phone number that’s cancelled can be reassigned to someone else. Keep paying for the phone contract and email for now.
- Tell the executor. If that’s not you, make sure the person handling the estate knows there’s crypto involved.
What not to do
These mistakes can’t be undone
- Never enter seed words (a list of 12 or 24 words) on a website, in an app you found through search, or in an email or chat. Anyone who has those words can take everything, instantly and for good.
- Never give the words, a photo of them or a device to someone offering to help unless you’ve known and trusted them for years.
- Don’t pay “recovery services”. They can’t do what they claim. See recovery scams.
- Don’t try to log in to their exchange account as them. Use the exchange’s official process for deceased users instead. It’s slower, but it’s the route that works and keeps you on the right side of the law.
- Don’t guess PINs on hardware wallets. After a limited number of wrong attempts, the device erases itself. After that, the coins can only be recovered with the seed words.
In the following weeks
- Make a list of everything you’ve found. Devices, papers, exchange names from emails or bank statements. Finding out what they had has a list of places to look.
- Get the paperwork started. Exchanges will ask for a death certificate and proof that you’re allowed to act for the estate, such as a grant of probate, letters testamentary or a certificate of inheritance. That’s the lawyer’s or notary’s department.
- Claim exchange accounts through each exchange’s process. See Claiming from an exchange.
- Deal with self-held wallets carefully. Read Found a hardware wallet or seed phrase? before touching them.
- Keep records of what you found, when, and what it was worth at the date of death. The estate will usually need values for tax.
Getting help
The right kind of help is someone you already trust who understands crypto, or a lawyer or accountant with crypto experience who charges for their time, not a percentage of what they “recover”. Be wary of anyone who contacts you first.