Power of Attorney, Incapacity and Crypto: What Family Can Do

A motorway accident, a week in a coma. Your wife stands in a hospital corridor and knows you own bitcoin. She doesn’t know where it is or how to reach it, and the law gives her no document she could use to get to it. The power of attorney you once signed for her about the car doesn’t help here.

Most texts about crypto and family are about death. Illness and incapacity are harder, because you’re alive and nobody can make decisions for you. This guide explains what a power of attorney gives in that situation, what a court gives, and why neither replaces good instructions.

The legal parts below describe Polish law. Other EU countries have their own rules on powers of attorney, guardianship and incapacity, so if you live elsewhere, check locally.

Why a power of attorney won’t open a wallet

In civil law, a power of attorney is authority to act in someone else’s name. An act done by an attorney within the limits of that authority has direct effect for the person represented (Article 95 § 2 of the Polish Civil Code). It works towards someone who can accept and check it: a bank, a notary, an office, an exchange.

A wallet with its own keys is different. Funds are controlled by signing with a private key, and the bitcoin network has no counter where someone checks who’s entitled. Whoever has the seed or the device with the keys can sign a transaction. Whoever only has a power of attorney has nothing to show any system. That follows from how the network works, not from a provision of law, so it holds in every country.

There’s also the other side. A power of attorney doesn’t replace the keys, but handing over the keys isn’t enough either. Someone who only holds a seed has no right to sign contracts in your name or answer for you before an office. Technical access and legal authority are two separate tracks, and both have to be prepared.

Where a power of attorney can help

A power of attorney makes sense for the parts of your assets that depend on people and institutions. For crypto, that’s mainly exchange accounts and matters connected with them, but only if the exchange accepts such a document.

The Civil Code’s rules on powers of attorney:

1. A general power of attorney covers only acts of ordinary management. For acts beyond that, you need a power of attorney that specifies their kind (Article 98). Whether withdrawing a large sum from an exchange is ordinary management doesn’t follow from the provision. In case of doubt, a specific power of attorney is needed.
2. A general power of attorney must be in writing, or it’s void. If an act needs a special form to be valid, the power of attorney for it must be given in the same form (Article 99).
3. It can be revoked at any time, unless the principal waived revocation for reasons arising from the underlying relationship (Article 101 § 1). You revoke a power of attorney when the relationship sours, so your family shouldn’t depend on a single sheet of paper.
4. Authority expires on the death of the principal or the attorney, unless the power of attorney provides otherwise for reasons justified by the legal relationship it rests on (Article 101 § 2). After your death, a power of attorney usually stops working. For that, there are a will and a notarial certificate of succession (akt poświadczenia dziedziczenia), as we explain in the guide Crypto in your will.

Article 101 § 2 mentions only death. What happens to a power of attorney when the principal loses legal capacity, the provision doesn’t say. We draw no conclusions here: that’s a question for a notary or lawyer who knows your power of attorney and the circumstances.

Exchanges have their own rules. In its help centre, Kraken says you shouldn’t let anyone open or manage an account in your name, and shouldn’t share your login details. According to its page on third-party payments, withdrawals to accounts not in your name aren’t supported. We don’t know how specific exchanges serving Polish clients treat powers of attorney in practice, and we won’t guess. The surest way is to write to support and ask which documents the exchange accepts in case of an account holder’s illness or death, and write the answer into the family instructions.

If nobody holds a power of attorney: incapacitation, guardianship and curatorship

When someone can’t manage their own affairs and has no attorney, the court route remains. The Civil Code currently in force is the text published in Dz. U. 2026 item 795, and the Family and Guardianship Code is the text in Dz. U. 2026 item 236.

Full incapacitation (ubezwłasnowolnienie całkowite) applies to a person aged 13 or over who, because of mental illness, intellectual disability or another kind of mental disorder, can’t direct their own conduct (Article 13 § 1 of the Civil Code). Such a person has no legal capacity (Article 12), and their legal acts are void (Article 14 § 1). A guardian (opiekun) is appointed for a fully incapacitated person.

Partial incapacitation applies to an adult whose condition doesn’t justify full incapacitation but who needs help managing their affairs (Article 16 § 1). A curator (kurator) is appointed for them.

A guardian or curator doesn’t get the key to the wallet by that fact. The rules on guardianship of a minor apply accordingly to guardianship of a fully incapacitated person (Article 175 of the Family and Guardianship Code). The guardian should get the guardianship court’s permission in all more important matters concerning the person or the property (Article 156). A curator of a partially incapacitated person is appointed to represent them and manage their property only if the guardianship court so decides (Article 181 § 1). Unless the interests of the person under guardianship stand in the way, the guardian should be first of all their spouse, and failing a spouse, a parent (Article 176).

For a family, that means two things. First, the court route takes time and can be burdensome for the sick person and the family, so it’s not a plan for a weekend. Second, even when the court appoints a guardian, the guardian still needs technical access to the keys. A court order can’t replace a seed.

Tool	What it gives	What it doesn’t give
General or specific power of attorney	Acting towards institutions that accept it	Access to a wallet with its own keys; expires on death (Article 101 § 2) unless provided otherwise
Guardianship of a fully incapacitated person	A statutory representative, supervised by the guardianship court	A quick procedure and technical access to the keys
Curatorship of a partially incapacitated person	Help managing affairs, with representation only if the court so decides	Technical access to the keys
Access instructions for your family	A description of where the keys are, who may reach them and when	Legal authority towards institutions
2-of-3 wallet and splitting the keys	The technical ability to act without one person	A replacement for a will and powers of attorney

A reform that may change incapacitation

On 3 June 2026 the government sent the Sejm a bill on supported decision-making instruments (print no. 2645). The bill provides four instruments: a legal assistant, a supporting curator, a representing curator and a registered attorney. According to the Office of the Ombudsman for Children, the Sejm’s extraordinary subcommittee dealt with the bill on 8 October 2026. The bill changes, among others, Articles 12, 15 and 16 of the Civil Code, which are the rules on incapacitation.

For this guide, the most interesting part is the registered power of attorney. According to the text of the bill, an adult could grant a power of attorney in case their health in future left them unable to direct their own conduct. The declaration is made in person in the form of a notarial deed and is entered in the Register of Powers of Attorney. The authority would cover all acts relating to the principal’s person and property. The act would enter into force 12 months after publication.

This is a bill, not law. As of 19 October 2026 you can’t rely on it, and its content may change during the work on it. Don’t draw up documents on its basis, and don’t postpone preparing your family because of it. Even if it came into force in its present shape, a registered power of attorney still wouldn’t hand over keys, because keys are a matter of technology, not of a register.

How to describe this in the family instructions

Access instructions for your family in case of incapacity should answer four questions.

1. Who is the first point of contact, and who is the backup if that person doesn’t pick up.
2. Where the devices and copies of the seed phrase physically are, so that someone who has never seen a hardware wallet won’t miss them. The words themselves don’t sit in the instructions.
3. In what circumstances they may be reached for. This condition protects you from abuse. It might be, for example, a doctor’s written statement of incapacity, or a family agreement made in front of a witness.
4. What to do, step by step, in which order, and what not to do: don’t type the words into websites, don’t trust “helpers” from the internet, don’t reset devices.

Add to that the things that can be arranged while you’re well: a list of exchange accounts with notes on their procedures, the email address that receives notifications, and a document describing who may do what towards institutions. If you want an arrangement where no single person has full control, consider a 2-of-3 multisig wallet: the keys sit in three places and two are needed for a transfer, so nobody can move the funds alone, but one person’s illness won’t lock them either. For bitcoin we set it up during setup.

What the instructions themselves should contain, and how to write them so they can be read under stress, is covered in the guide Family access instructions: what to include. Instructions for the event of death are covered by the glossary entry payable-on-death instruction, and a place to keep documents with a notary by the entry notarial deposit.

The division of roles in our service is simple: a will, powers of attorney and court matters are handled by a notary or lawyer, and we prepare the technical part. That part is a description of where the hardware is, how to check that the backup works, who to notify and in what order, and a test that someone in the family can go through it without you. Scope and prices are on the page For family. During this work we don’t see your seed and we have no access to your funds.

For the wider picture of family and inheritance matters, see the pillar Crypto inheritance, and for what happens after death, the guide What happens to your bitcoin when you die.

Accurate as of 19 October 2026. This is not legal advice. Powers of attorney, guardianship, curatorship and the bill on supported decision-making instruments are described for information, based on the texts of the acts and the parliamentary print. For your own case, ask a notary or lawyer, ideally before anything happens.