Ethereum, tokens, NFTs and DeFi: what’s different for inheritance

Most of this site applies to any coin. This page covers what’s extra when the crypto lives on Ethereum, on networks like it (Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, BNB Chain) or on Solana. Written for the planner; heirs who have found such a wallet should read it too.

One seed, many accounts, many networks

A seed phrase in MetaMask, Rabby, Phantom, a Ledger or a Trezor doesn’t open “a wallet”. It opens as many accounts as the owner created, on every network the app supports. The catch is what happens on restore:

• Not every account comes back automatically. After a restore, MetaMask re-adds the accounts from the same seed that hold an ETH balance; accounts with no ETH, even if they hold tokens, have to be re-added by hand, in the order they were created (MetaMask). Nothing is lost; it just isn’t shown until you add it.
• Imported accounts aren’t covered by the seed. Accounts added from a separate private key or file “will not sync automatically and must be manually re-added”, with that key (MetaMask). If the key was never written down, that account is gone. Accounts that belonged to a hardware wallet connected to the app don’t come back either; they need that device or its own seed.
• Less common networks must be switched on. Current MetaMask pre-enables the popular networks and shows balances across them, but others have to be added by hand, and a network added on one device “does not mean it will appear on another device” (MetaMask). Older or other apps may show one network at a time.
• Different apps derive accounts differently. The same seed in a different app can open different accounts, because apps use different “derivation paths”. Phantom, for example, supports several and only shows the non-default ones if they’ve been used (Phantom). So the instructions should name the app, not just the seed.

For heirs: before concluding a wallet is empty, open it in the app named in the instructions, add accounts until new ones show nothing, switch through the networks, and look the addresses up on a block explorer. Etherscan’s token-holdings view lists every token and NFT an address holds on Ethereum (Etherscan); other networks have their own explorers.

Tokens and NFTs that don’t show

A wallet app shows the popular tokens by default and hides the rest. MetaMask auto-detects tokens on its main networks, but “Basic Functionality” has to be on and anything else is added by hand, per network (MetaMask). An inherited wallet that shows 0.1 ETH may also hold stablecoins or project tokens worth far more; the explorer shows them, the app doesn’t.

NFTs are recorded on the chain, with the picture and description usually stored elsewhere (EIP-721). A marketplace profile such as OpenSea is “a window into your crypto wallet, showing the NFTs you own” (OpenSea), and a block explorer lists them by address. Valuing them for an estate is harder than finding them; one US trust company notes there’s often no sales history to compare against and few qualified appraisers (Greenleaf Trust). Note what you hold and roughly what you paid; the estate’s adviser will take it from there.

Staked coins

• Liquid staking (Lido’s stETH and similar) can be sold or withdrawn at any time; Lido says withdrawals usually take “from 1-5 days” (Lido).
• Running your own validator is different. Exiting needs either the validator’s signing keys or control of the withdrawal address that was set for it; a validator that never had a withdrawal address set can only be exited with the validator keys (ethereum.org). Those keys usually come from a separate mnemonic, generated when the validator was set up. If you stake this way, your heirs need that mnemonic and the withdrawal address, and a line explaining that the 32 ETH won’t appear in any wallet app until the exit is done.
• Staking through an exchange is handled in the estate claim, with a waiting period set by the network. See exchanges and apps.

DeFi: positions that can go wrong on their own

A lot of DeFi needs an owner who’s paying attention. Nobody is, for the months between a death and the heirs getting access.

• Loans can be liquidated. On Aave, a position whose “health factor” drops below 1.0 is liquidated by anyone who wants the bonus (Aave). If you’ve borrowed against your coins and the price falls while your estate is in probate, the collateral is sold and the loss is final. Don’t leave a leveraged position behind that nobody can tend.
• Liquidity positions hide in NFTs. A Uniswap v3 position is an NFT, not a token balance (Uniswap). Heirs who don’t know that will see nothing.
• Old approvals are a theft risk. Every time you let a protocol spend a token, that permission stays until revoked, and a hacked contract can use it (revoke.cash). Revoke what you don’t use; it’s one less way the estate shrinks while nobody’s watching.
• Multi-owner accounts such as Safe need the other owners to sign. Safe’s recovery module lets named recoverers replace the owners after a delay, 28 days by default. Details in Multisig inheritance.

What to write down

Besides the seed and the app, your recovery sheet for an Ethereum-style wallet should list:

• The app (MetaMask, Rabby, Phantom, Ledger Live, Trezor Suite) and, if you know it, the derivation path or “account type” setting.
• How many accounts you created, and a label for each.
• Any account imported from a private key, and where that key is.
• The networks you use, with the main holdings per network.
• Tokens that need adding by hand.
• Staking: liquid, exchange or own validator; for a validator, where the validator mnemonic and withdrawal address are.
• Open DeFi positions: which protocol, what’s borrowed, what would need doing.
• NFTs worth anything, and where the receipts are.

The wallet recovery sheet has room for all of it. Next: Emergency access and dead man’s switches.