Digital assets appeared only 15 years ago and will not disappear from our lives. But we, the owners of cryptocurrencies, begin to disappear, sometimes very suddenly and not always for natural reasons. And here a serious problem arises: the inheritance of cryptocurrencies. Of course, there are such potential heirs that it is not a sin to transfer your assets into crypto as much as possible and not give out the keys to anyone. But still, the procedure for inheriting digital assets has been relevant for many years.
In 2018, tragedy struck – businessman Matthew Mellon, who was on the Forbes list, suddenly died in his hotel room in Cancun. His fortune, largely earned through investments in Ripple, was worth nearly $1 billion at the time of his death, including about $200 million in XRP.
Cryptocurrency is traditionally stored in custodial wallets, cold wallets, mobile wallets, and local software storage. The private key provides access to virtual savings, and usually lsm99 only the owner knows about it. This provides security, but the desire to preserve your capital from potential online robbers can play a cruel joke even on the owner of the coins.
Matthew Mellon’s family had to face succession problems. After the death of the entrepreneur, it turned out that cryptocurrencies were not mentioned in the will, and no one knew the location of the private key. Mellon kept the keys in different places under different names, which created significant difficulties for the heirs.
The heirs spent several months searching for the keys and lost a lot of money, because XRP at that time walked up and down mockingly and giggling. If the capital was stored in stable coins, these guys would not be so nervous, because the USDT-ERC20 price is pegged to the USD. When they finally managed to find access to the wallets, it turned out that Mellon had entered into an agreement with Ripple limiting the volume of sales of XRP. This meant that it was impossible to quickly sell off assets to pay off debts, including taxes.
How to act as a testator?
If you sincerely love your family and do not dream of annoying them posthumously, you need to draw up a will correctly.
Pre-planning
It is recommended to think in advance about who and how to transfer your assets. The will becomes a key document, so it should be drawn up and notarized. This ensures that your savings go to the people you want them to. What happens in cases where there is no will or it is drawn up incorrectly is known to everyone.