In short
A minor can inherit crypto; a minor can’t open an exchange account, sign a contract or be handed a seed phrase. Someone has to hold it for them until an age you choose, under rules a court can check. Name that person in your will, give them a workable setup such as a multisig key, and say at what age the child takes over. Without a plan, a court decides and the money may be paid into court until the child turns 18.
The problem
Exchanges require customers to be adults. A hardware wallet in a ten-year-old’s bedroom is a theft waiting to happen, and a seed phrase a teenager knows is a seed phrase their friends know. So inherited crypto for a child always passes through an adult: a guardian, a trustee, a custodian under a statute. Your job is to choose that adult and give them the means, instead of leaving it to a court.
Two roles are often confused. A guardian of the person looks after the child; a guardian of the estate, trustee or bewindvoerder looks after the money. They can be the same person, and often shouldn’t be: the aunt who’d raise your children may not be the one you’d trust with a wallet.
How it works per country
- United States. Without a plan, a court appoints a guardian of the estate, who needs court approval for many decisions. The usual alternatives are a custodial account under the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act, which the child takes over at 18 to 21 depending on the state (some states allow up to 25), or a trust with an age you choose. Custodial accounts at brokers can hold spot bitcoin ETFs but not crypto itself; Robinhood’s custodial accounts, for example, list crypto as “not supported” (Robinhood). So either the trustee holds the keys to a wallet, or the coins are sold and the proceeds invested in a custodial account.
- United Kingdom. A child can own crypto but not manage it; the inheritance is held by trustees until 18 (16 in Scotland). A will can set up a trust for a bereaved minor or an “18-to-25 trust” with favourable inheritance tax treatment (GOV.UK); the trustees may use income and capital for the child’s benefit in the meantime (Trustee Act 1925, sections 31 and 32). A Junior ISA can’t hold crypto or crypto ETNs (Fidelity).
- Netherlands. Minors inherit, by default beneficiair, and the parent with authority or the voogd manages the inheritance until 18; the court must approve some decisions, such as rejecting the inheritance (Rijksoverheid). A will can put the inheritance under testamentair bewind to a later age, often 23 to 27, with a bewindvoerder you name (Van Lanschot Kempen).
- Germany. Parents manage a child’s inheritance under their Vermögenssorge, with the family court’s approval for major transactions; a will can exclude a parent from managing it or appoint a Testamentsvollstrecker instead (IWW).
- Canada (Ontario). Without a trust in the will, an executor may pay at most C$35,000 to the parent; anything more is paid into court and held until 18 (Miller Thomson). Crypto paid into court means crypto sold.
- Australia. A will normally creates a trust for a child, with a trustee holding the assets until an age you set; the state Public Trustee can be appointed as trustee (Public Trustee SA).
Everywhere, the pattern is the same: the law provides a default that involves a court and usually a sale, and a will can replace it with a person and an age of your choosing.
What your will should do
- Name the person who manages the crypto for the child, and a substitute. Say whether it’s the same person as the guardian.
- Set the age at which the child takes control. Eighteen is early for a wallet; many parents choose 21 to 25, or staged amounts.
- Give the manager the power to hold crypto. Older trust wording limited to “securities” or “investments” may not cover it, and a cautious trustee may feel obliged to sell. Say explicitly that the trustee may keep, hold and move crypto, and may use a custodian or multisig.
- Say what you’d prefer: keep the coins, or sell and invest conventionally. The trustee decides, but your wishes guide them.
The keys
A trustee needs to be able to move the coins and to prove to a court that they’re looked after.
- Multisig with the trustee as one key works well: trustee, a second adult (the guardian, a lawyer) and a sealed backup or custodian. No single person can empty the child’s inheritance. Services that give trustees view-only access help with the accounting (Casa offers it on its business plans).
- Never give the child a seed phrase, and don’t let the trustee keep it on a phone. The storage rules apply doubly.
- Record the value at the date of death, which is the child’s starting point for tax in most countries (Valuing crypto at the date of death), and keep the records for a decade.
- Plan the handover. At the chosen age, the trustee should set the young adult up with their own wallet and seed, with a test transaction, rather than handing over an old device.
If you’re the trustee now
Read the heirs’ section as if the coins were yours, because for the next few years the responsibility is. Move the coins off the deceased’s seed to a wallet the trust controls, keep the court or the beneficiary informed, and don’t trade: a trustee who turns an inheritance into a loss answers for it.