The Cryptocurrency Graveyard

When Gerald Cotten, founder of the Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, died while travelling in India in December 2018, customers were told that only he could reach the exchange's wallets. Canadian regulators later found most of the money was already gone because of his own misconduct, and about 76,000 customers were owed around C$215 million. The lesson for families is simpler: if only one person knows how to reach an asset, everyone else is stuck.

Chainalysis, a blockchain research firm, has estimated that roughly 11% to 18% of all the Bitcoin that will ever exist may be lost for good. Part of it belongs to people who died without sharing their wallet keys, seed phrases, or exchange passwords with anyone.

In India, the crypto market has grown rapidly. Many Indians hold cryptocurrency on exchanges like WazirX, CoinDCX, and Binance, or in hardware wallets. If the account holder dies, the family needs the exchange login credentials or the wallet's seed phrase. Without either, the crypto is gone forever.

Unlike bank accounts, there is no RBI, no succession certificate, no court order that can recover cryptocurrency from a wallet whose keys are lost. The blockchain does not care about legal heirs. Possession of the private key is absolute ownership.

Document your crypto holdings: exchange accounts, wallet addresses, seed phrases, and 2FA recovery codes. Keep them in Sort My Legacy's Digital Legacy vault, which is encrypted on your device with your master password. Then make sure the person who will need them can get that master password, for example through a sealed envelope kept with your will. That way your crypto does not become a digital tombstone.

General information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Laws and rules change, so check with a qualified lawyer or CA before you act.