Digital assets inheritance disputes: what happens to cryptocurrency after death?
Sorting out someone’s affairs after their death still means going through drawers, filing cabinets and paperwork to work out what they owned. But there is now another layer to consider, from online accounts to cryptocurrency. These can be harder to identify, value or access than more traditional assets.
This new layer of estate administration has made the process more complex and created another potential source of disagreement. Digital assets inheritance disputes may involve uncertainty over who should inherit an asset, problems recovering it, or concerns about what has happened to it since the death.
What are digital assets and how are they different from other property?
The law recognises that property does not have to be something physical. Cryptocurrency and other digital assets can form part of someone’s estate, just like a house, money in a bank account or a valuable heirloom.
The Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 confirms that something digital can still be recognised as property even if it does not fit neatly within the way personal property has traditionally been classified in law. The same approach had already been taken by the High Court in AA v Persons Unknown [2019], which treated Bitcoin as property.
Digital assets can take many forms, including:
- cryptocurrency and other digital investments, which may be held through an exchange or digital wallet;
- online investment holdings, for example assets held through a trading platform;
- digital content that generates income, which might include photographs, videos or other material;
- intellectual property and associated rights, including copyright in digital works; and
- domain names and other online property that can be owned, transferred or sold.
Not everything found on a phone, computer or online account can be inherited, so you first need to establish what the deceased actually owned. Some digital assets can pass as part of their estate, while other things they accessed online may only give them a personal right to use a service or content, which may end when they die. For example, cryptocurrency they owned may be inherited, whereas a streaming subscription may not be transferable to someone else.
Finding an exchange app, online account or login can therefore be a useful starting point, but it does not necessarily tell you what was held there when the person died.
Who inherits cryptocurrency and other digital assets?
Once a digital asset has been identified, you need to work out who is entitled to inherit it. The starting point is whether the deceased left a valid will.
What if there is a will?
Cryptocurrency and other digital property do not have to be named specifically in a will to pass to a beneficiary. The wording may already be wide enough to determine who should receive them.
The law treats physical belongings differently from digital property. The Administration of Estates Act 1925 uses the term “personal chattels” for belongings such as furniture, jewellery and other physical possessions. Cryptocurrency is not a physical possession, so it does not fall into that category.
For example, someone might leave their personal belongings to one person and “the remainder of their estate” to another. A phone could form part of the gift of belongings, but cryptocurrency accessed through it would not pass with the phone simply because the two are connected. Depending on the wording of the will, the cryptocurrency could instead form part of the remainder of the estate and pass to a different beneficiary.
What if there is no valid will?
If there is no valid will, digital assets pass under the intestacy rules with the rest of the estate. Who receives them will depend on which relatives are legally entitled to inherit.
Knowing who should inherit a digital asset does not necessarily mean it is ready to be passed on. Cryptocurrency and other digital holdings still need to be located and accessed, which becomes much harder when passwords, private keys or recovery details are missing.
What happens if you cannot access digital assets after someone dies?
Most of us have forgotten a password or lost access to an online account at some point. After someone dies, the problem becomes more serious if they were the only person who knew how an account or asset could be accessed.
You may know that something exists, vaguely remember the person mentioning it, or only find evidence of it after their death. Without passwords or other access details, working out what was held and recovering it may be far from straightforward.
What happens next depends on the type of asset and where it is held. An exchange, investment platform or other online provider will often have a process for handling an account after a customer dies. A personal digital wallet is different because access can depend on a private key, recovery phrase or other information known only to the person who died.
Losing access does not mean the asset stops belonging to the estate. But if the details needed to regain control cannot be found, recovering or transferring it may be difficult or even impossible.
When can a digital assets inheritance dispute arise?
A dispute may start because cryptocurrency or another digital holding has gone missing, been transferred to the wrong person, been sold without a clear reason or lost value through an unreasonable delay. There may also be disagreement over who owns it or who should inherit it.
Not every loss or delay means something has gone wrong. Cryptocurrency and other digital investments can change in value quickly, while gaining access to an account or wallet may take time. What matters is what happened, the decisions that were made and whether they caused avoidable financial loss.
Emails, account records, transaction histories, notifications and old devices can help piece together the sequence of events. They could show when the holding was discovered, what it was worth and whether it was later accessed, sold or transferred.
If the evidence points to problems with the way the digital property was managed as part of the estate, there may be grounds to challenge the decisions made or pursue a claim for any loss caused.
If you are concerned that other estate property may also be missing or unaccounted for, find out more about hidden assets in probate disputes.
Speak to our digital inheritance dispute solicitors
Cryptocurrency, online accounts and digital investments can make an inheritance dispute harder to untangle, particularly when ownership or access is unclear.
Our specialist contentious probate team can talk through your concerns and explain how we may be able to help.
Get in touch for a free initial call.
Call Us Now – 0203 322 5103
This blog provides general information only and should not be treated as formal legal advice.