The Cryptocurrency Graveyard

When Gerald Cotten, founder of Canada's largest crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, died unexpectedly in 2018, $190 million in customer cryptocurrency became permanently inaccessible. He was the only person who knew the private keys. This is not an isolated case.

Research estimates that 20% of all Bitcoin, roughly $68 billion at current prices, is permanently lost. A significant portion 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. Millions of 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. Store them in Sort My Legacy's Digital Legacy vault with zero-knowledge encryption. Your family gets access when they need it. Your crypto does not become a digital tombstone.