How to Leave Crypto in Your Will (2026)

Key Takeaways: Leaving Crypto in Your Will

• Make sure your will lists your crypto and says who gets it. Say what you hold and where to look — never the keys that unlock it.
• Never write a seed phrase, private key, PIN or password into your will. Once probate is granted, anyone can order a copy for £16.
• Record what you hold and where it lives — exchanges, wallets, devices, where the backups are kept — in your will, a private note, or both. Never the keys themselves.
• Make sure someone can actually act on it. A will gives your executor authority, not access. If nobody can reach the keys, the crypto is lost however well the will is written.
• Crypto counts towards your estate for inheritance tax in the same way as everything else you own.

Can You Put Your Seed Phrase in Your Will?

Nothing stops you. You shouldn't, and the reason is concrete.

Once probate is granted — probate being the court's confirmation that your executor has authority to deal with your estate — your will becomes a public document. Anyone can search probate records for England and Wales and order a copy. A new record appears online approximately 14 days after probate has been issued, and each copy ordered online costs £16.

So anything written in the will itself is readable by any stranger willing to pay £16.

A seed phrase in a will isn't a secret passed to your family. It's a public notice with a price tag, and whoever reads it first can empty the wallet.

Wills are also copied and stored for years before they're needed. Every copy would be a copy of your keys.

The will's job is to say who inherits. The keys belong somewhere else entirely.

Is Cryptocurrency Legally Property in the UK?

Yes, and in England and Wales there's now a statute that says so directly. That matters here because a will can only pass on property.

The Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 2 December 2025. Section 1 reads, in full:

"A thing (including a thing that is digital or electronic in nature) is not prevented from being the object of personal property rights merely because it is neither—(a) a thing in possession, nor (b) a thing in action."

A "thing in possession" is a physical object you can hold. A "thing in action" is a right you enforce through the courts, like a debt. Crypto is neither, and the Act confirms that doesn't stop it being property.

The upshot: your crypto can be owned, so it can be inherited and left in a will like your savings or your car. The Act doesn't create any new tax or registration duty.

What Should Your Will Actually Say About Crypto?

Nothing secret, and less than most people fear. A will deals in who gets what. It never needs a wallet address, and it must never hold a key. What it can usefully do is list what you hold — bitcoin, ether or anything else, which wallet or exchange it sits on, and roughly how much — so your executor knows it exists.

Three things do the real work:

1. A section that lists your crypto. Naming each holding tells your executor what to look for, and makes it clear they're meant to deal with it.
2. A clear beneficiary. You can leave crypto as a specific gift — a named asset to a named person — or let it fall into your residuary estate, meaning everything left once specific gifts, debts and costs are dealt with.
3. An executor who can cope with it. Your executor is the person who carries out your will. They don't need to be a crypto expert, but they do need to be willing to follow a technical process carefully, or to bring in someone who can.

That's what a crypto will is: an ordinary will with a section that lists each holding and where to look, not a separate kind of document. Anything you don't list still passes with the rest of your estate. What stays out of it is anything that would let a stranger move a coin.

How Do You Tell Your Executor What You Own Without Handing Over the Keys?

Separate two things that are easy to blur: the map and the keys.

The map is a written record of what exists and where. Which exchanges you use, and the email address each account is registered to. Which wallets you have, on which devices. That a hardware wallet exists, where it's kept, where its seed backup is stored, and whether you've set a passphrase. Nothing on the map lets anyone move a coin.

The keys — seed phrases, private keys, PINs, passwords — stay where they are, stored the way you store them now. The map says where your seed backup is kept, never what it says. Don't email, text, photograph or upload a seed phrase to make things easier for your family, and don't share it with anyone while you're alive.

Your will can carry the map. It's signed, kept with your other papers and read by your executor first, so it's the one document they're certain to find. Some people also keep a private note alongside it — a letter of wishes is the usual form, a non-binding note to your executor that sits with the will rather than inside it — for details that change often, or that they'd rather not see in a document that becomes public. Whichever you use, keep it up to date when you open or close an account.

One caveat. If your seed backup is somewhere only you can open, the map leads nowhere. Your executor needs a way to reach that place after you've died — a safe whose key they can find, a deed box, somewhere your family can get into.

What Happens to Crypto Held on an Exchange?

Exchange-held crypto is usually the most recoverable kind, because a company holds the account in your name.

Major exchanges generally have a process for the estate of a deceased account holder. It's a formal legal process, not a password handover. It typically turns on two things: proof of death, and proof of your executor's authority — normally the grant of probate, or letters of administration where there's no will. Each exchange runs its own procedure. Logging in with your password, even if someone knew it, isn't the same as having authority to deal with the account.

The hard part is usually finding the account at all. An executor who doesn't know which exchanges you used has nowhere to start.

How Would Your Executor Get Into a Hardware Wallet?

Through the seed phrase. The device matters less than people assume.

A hardware wallet doesn't hold your crypto; it holds the keys that control it. With the seed phrase, and any passphrase you've added on top, your executor can restore the wallet on another device and reach the funds. With the device and its PIN, they can get in that way. With neither, there's no company to ask and no reset button.

So your record should cover:

• that the device exists, and where it's kept
• where the seed backup is stored — a safe, a deed box, a metal plate somewhere specific
• whether you've used a passphrase, and where that's kept
• which make of wallet it works with

Passphrases catch people out. A seed backup restored without its passphrase opens a wallet that looks empty. An executor who doesn't know one exists will assume that's the end of it.

And plainly: if nobody can reach the seed phrase, the crypto on that wallet can't be recovered. A perfect will doesn't change that.

Does Your Family Pay Inheritance Tax on Cryptocurrency?

Your estate might, and crypto counts like anything else you own. Inheritance tax is usually paid out of your estate before it's shared out, not by your beneficiaries.

The inheritance tax threshold is £325,000. It can rise to £500,000 where your home passes to your children or grandchildren. Above the threshold, the standard rate is 40%, reduced to 36% where 10% or more of your net estate goes to charity. Any unused threshold can pass to a spouse or civil partner.

If you're not sure which side of the threshold you're on, you can estimate the inheritance tax on your estate in a few minutes.

Holding crypto on an overseas exchange doesn't take it outside the UK. HMRC's Cryptoassets Manual says that for exchange tokens with no underlying asset, "the location of the cryptoasset will be determined by the residency of the beneficial owner" — the beneficial owner being the person actually entitled to it, which is you, not the exchange. If you're UK resident, your crypto is treated as UK-located wherever the exchange is based. Where a token simply represents an underlying asset, the location of that underlying asset governs instead.

Capital gains tax is a separate question for the people who inherit. Inheriting crypto doesn't trigger it. GOV.UK explains that a beneficiary only needs to work out whether it's due if they later dispose of the asset. The question arises when they sell, not when they inherit.

What Happens to Your Crypto If You Don't Leave a Will?

It's still part of your estate, but the intestacy rules decide who gets it. Intestacy is the fixed set of legal rules that apply when there's no will. They follow an order of relatives and take no account of what you'd have wanted — an unmarried partner, for example, inherits nothing under them.

Someone then has to apply for letters of administration to become your administrator: an executor in all but name, except that you didn't choose them. Until that's done, nobody has authority to deal with your exchange accounts.

The practical problem is the same with or without a will. If nobody knows your crypto exists, or where the keys are, it doesn't matter who's entitled to it.

If you want to make a will, you've got real choices. You can write your own, use a solicitor, or use a free will scheme — several charities run them. SimpleLPA's crypto will costs £39, and a standard single will is £29. Both are designed to solicitor standards, though we're a legal technology provider rather than a law firm, and we don't give legal advice. Whichever route you take, the record of what you hold is the part only you can write.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you leave crypto in your will?

Yes. Crypto is property in England and Wales, and the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 confirms it, so you can leave it in your will like anything else you own. List what you hold and who gets it, and keep the keys out.

Do I need a separate will just for my crypto?

No. Crypto can go in your ordinary will alongside everything else you own. What matters is that your executor can find out what exists and where to look, and listing it in the will is the surest way to make that happen.

Can I leave my crypto to more than one person?

Yes. You can divide it between people in shares, the same way you'd divide savings. Leaving a share of the value is often simpler than naming specific coins, because what you hold is likely to change.

Does my executor need to understand crypto?

Not deeply, but they do need to be willing to follow a careful process or bring in someone who can. If the person you'd naturally choose isn't comfortable with it, you can name a second executor to act alongside them.

What about crypto I buy after making my will?

Anything your will doesn't list still passes with the rest of your estate, so a new holding isn't lost to your family in law. In practice your executor can only claim what they know about, so update the list — with a new will, a private note, or both — when your holdings change significantly.

Does this apply in Scotland?

No. This guide covers England and Wales only. Scotland has its own separate system for wills and inheritance, so if you live there, look for guidance written for Scottish law.