How to Handle a Deceased Person's Crypto and Domain Names

By The HeirLoft Team · July 2, 2026

Cryptocurrency and domain names are the two digital assets most likely to be missed in an estate — and the two where the right first move is the least obvious. The single question that decides everything is where the asset actually lives. Crypto on an exchange (a custodial account) is claimed by the estate through the platform's deceased-account process, much like a bank account. Crypto in a self-custody wallet has no company to petition — it can only be reached with the private keys or seed phrase the person left behind. Domains sit in between: they're controlled through a registrar account, so the estate claims them through the registrar, never by logging in as the deceased. If you're just starting to map what existed, begin with how to find a deceased person's subscriptions and recurring charges.

This is an organizing overview of the official, lawful paths for a deceased person's crypto and domains — not a set of legal, financial, or tax steps you're cleared to take. It's a sub-topic of the broader digital estate checklist for executors; start there for the full picture, and use this piece for the crypto-and-domains slice.

The distinction that decides everything: custodial vs. self-custody

Almost every question about a deceased person's crypto comes down to one fork:

• Custodial means a company holds the assets on the person's behalf — an exchange or broker account. There's a business to contact, an account tied to an identity, and an estate process to follow. This behaves much like a financial account.
• Self-custody means the person held the assets directly in a wallet whose keys only they controlled. There is no company to petition and no password-reset. Access exists only if the keys or seed phrase were written down somewhere the estate can lawfully find them.

Your authority in either case comes from the law and each provider's process, not from having a login. In the U.S., a fiduciary's access to digital assets is governed by the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), which is adopted state by state and varies by jurisdiction; the Uniform Law Commission keeps the official overview of the Act. Because it varies, this is a question for the probate or estate attorney handling the estate, and the broader responsibilities of managing someone else's money are laid out in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Managing Someone Else's Money guides.

Crypto on an exchange (custodial): claim it like a financial account

If the deceased used a mainstream exchange, the account has an owner of record and, in most cases, a deceased-estate process. Major exchanges such as Coinbase or Kraken have estate teams; the executor makes a claim to the assets, the platform verifies the death and your authority, and it releases the holdings to the estate or a named beneficiary.

• You'll generally need a certified copy of the death certificate, your government ID, and — for accounts running through the estate — letters testamentary or letters of administration naming you.
• Don't log in as the deceased. Using their credentials, 2FA device, or recovery codes to move funds can violate the account agreement and the law, even with good intentions. Use the platform's official estate process instead.
• Start from the platform's official help site — search "[exchange] estate" or "[exchange] deceased account" — rather than a third-party link, since these pages move and impersonation scams are common.

Self-custody wallets: keys or nothing, honestly

This is the hardest truth on the page, and the most important to state plainly: a self-custody wallet can be opened only by someone who has its private keys or seed phrase (often a list of 12–24 recovery words). No exchange, no wallet maker, and no court order can reset or bypass that. It's the entire security model of self-custody.

So the outcome is binary:

• If the person left the keys or seed phrase somewhere the estate can lawfully access — a written record, a safe, a sealed letter, a password manager the executor is authorized to open — the funds are recoverable, and the estate can move them following the attorney's guidance.
• If they didn't, the honest answer is that the funds are very likely permanently inaccessible. That's painful to hear, but it's the reality of how self-custody works.

One firm warning: do not try to guess, brute-force, or crack a seed phrase, private key, or wallet password, and be extremely wary of any person or service that claims it can "recover" a wallet for you. Those offers are overwhelmingly scams that take an up-front fee or the remaining keys and vanish. There is no legitimate back door — the only lawful path is the keys the person actually left.

Domain names: claim through the registrar, and watch the clock

A domain name isn't owned like a physical object; it's registered through a registrar (such as GoDaddy or Namecheap) and controlled through that registrar account. So the estate reaches a domain the same way it reaches an exchange account: through the registrar's process, not by logging in as the deceased. ICANN, which oversees the domain system, publishes registrant rights and transfer resources that explain how registrant changes and transfers work in principle; the specific steps live with each registrar's support or estate process.

Domains carry a risk that bank accounts don't: they silently expire. Registrations renew on a fixed schedule, and if the card on file fails — which is exactly what happens when accounts are frozen during probate — the domain can lapse and, after a grace period, be released for anyone to register. A valuable or sentimentally important domain (a family business site, a personal email domain) can be lost in weeks if no one is watching the renewal date. So for domains, act early: identify them, note their expiration dates, and coordinate with the registrar and the attorney to keep renewals current while the estate is settled.

Start by surfacing what existed

A note on taxes — property, not advice

For U.S. tax purposes, cryptocurrency is treated as property, not currency, which affects how an estate reports and values it; the IRS keeps its digital assets guidance current. Valuable domains can carry value too. This piece flags that these assets exist and can matter for the estate's accounting — it is not valuation, cost-basis, or tax-strategy guidance. An estate holding crypto or valuable domains should bring in a tax professional and the probate attorney; that's a decision for them, not a checklist.

If you're planning ahead — leave the keys and the list

If you're reading this about your own assets rather than as an executor, the lesson writes itself: self-custodied crypto and quietly renewing domains are exactly the things your family cannot recover by guessing. The fix isn't to hand out passwords — it's to leave a clear record of what exists and where the access lives, so the people who need it can find it lawfully. Decide these in advance: name beneficiaries where the platform allows it, tell your attorney the assets exist, and keep an up-to-date list. See how to leave an organized list of your accounts for your family, and — because the recurring charges are the hardest part to reconstruct — the subscriptions you forgot you're paying for. That record is about decisions, not passwords.

This is one item on a larger checklist

Crypto and domains are one category in an executor's work, alongside financial and payment accounts, the recurring subscriptions that keep billing until they're canceled, the email account that ties the digital estate together, and the social and photo accounts that need their own handling. For how all the pieces fit together, start from the digital estate checklist for executors.

To be clear: this is about organizing and routing each asset to its proper, lawful process — not a recommendation to buy, sell, or move anything, and not a substitute for legal or financial advice. What you're permitted to claim or transfer, and how, is a question for the attorney handling the estate.

Frequently asked questions

What happens to a person's cryptocurrency when they die?

It depends entirely on where the crypto lived. Coins held on an exchange (a custodial account) can usually be claimed by the estate through the platform's deceased-account process, much like a bank account. Coins held in a self-custody wallet can only be reached by whoever has the private keys or seed phrase — so if the person left those somewhere the estate can find, the funds are recoverable, and if they didn't, they are very likely lost for good.

Can a crypto exchange give my family access to the account?

An exchange won't hand over the login, but most major platforms have an estate or bereavement process that releases the assets to the estate or a named beneficiary once you prove the death and your authority. You'll generally need a certified death certificate and letters testamentary, the same documents a bank asks for. Start from the exchange's official help site rather than logging in as the account holder.

Is lost crypto recoverable without the seed phrase or private keys?

Realistically, no. Self-custodied crypto is secured so that only the holder of the private keys or seed phrase can move it, and there is no company or administrator who can reset that access. Do not try to guess, brute-force, or crack a seed phrase or private key, and be wary of any service that claims it can recover a wallet for you — those are common scams. If no keys were left behind, the honest answer is that the funds are almost certainly permanently inaccessible.

What happens to a domain name when the owner dies?

A domain is controlled through the registrar account it's registered with, not owned outright, so the estate reaches it by going through that registrar's process to transfer or manage the domain — not by logging in as the deceased. The bigger risk is time: domains renew on a schedule, and if a renewal payment fails while the estate is being settled, the domain can expire and be lost, sometimes within weeks. Identify domains early and make sure renewals don't lapse.

Are crypto and domain names part of the estate?

Generally yes — both are property that belongs to the estate and passes under the will or state law, and in the US crypto is treated as property for tax purposes. Because valuation and tax treatment can get complicated, an estate holding crypto or valuable domains should involve a probate attorney and a tax professional. This article is general information, not legal, financial, or tax advice.

See what you're really paying for

Nothing here is legal, financial, or tax advice. Fiduciary access to a decedent's assets varies by state and situation — for your specific case, consult the probate or estate attorney handling the estate.