Inherited Crypto: What to Do, in What Order, and What to Avoid

In your mother’s drawer there’s a hardware wallet in a box. In the envelope next to it is a paper with twenty-four English words. On her phone there’s an app with an icon you don’t recognise. You don’t know whether there’s five euros in all this or half a million, and nobody can tell you.

The biggest risk in the first days is haste, and scammers. Do less than you think you need to, and do it in the right order.

What not to do

Start with the list of don’ts, because it’s what protects the funds.

1. Don’t type the recovery words into any website or any app you found through a search engine. A hardware wallet is restored following the manufacturer’s official instructions, in its app and on the device’s screen. A site that asks for all the words at once exists to steal. Search ads can lead to sites that imitate the manufacturer, so type the manufacturer’s address by hand or take it from the box.
2. Don’t call “recovery” services. In its notice on crypto recovery schemes, the FBI describes scammers who take a fee upfront and then stop answering or send a worthless report. The Polish CBZC (the police cybercrime bureau) warns that criminals post promises of quick recovery of funds online, and that law enforcement doesn’t contact anyone asking for payments to recover money.
3. Don’t accept offers of “help” from people who contacted you first. An unsolicited offer of help with crypto is a warning sign.
4. Don’t photograph the paper with the words and don’t send it to anyone, including in a family chat. A photo on a phone is a second copy someone can find.
5. Don’t guess the PIN. According to Trezor’s instructions (Model One), a forgotten PIN means resetting the device and restoring the wallet from the backup. A reset device without the words is empty.
6. Don’t reset the phone, delete apps or erase files. In a mobile wallet the keys may exist only on the phone. A deleted app with no copy of the words means the funds are lost.
7. Don’t move or sell anything in the first days. Apart from tax, there’s the matter of co-heirs, covered below.
8. Don’t throw away anything that looks like old hardware, a paper or a notebook with passwords.

The order of steps

1. Stop, and don’t switch anything on online. Don’t log in to the deceased’s accounts and don’t open their email unless you have to.
2. Secure what you found. Put the box, the paper and the phone in one place that locks. On a separate sheet, write down what each item is, without the recovery words.
3. Tell one trusted person and the other heirs. If there are several heirs, trouble starts when one of them acts quietly.
4. Deal with the inheritance formalities. Your right to the estate is confirmed by a court ruling confirming the inheritance or by a notarial certificate of succession (akt poświadczenia dziedziczenia) from a Polish notary. Crypto should be listed in the estate case like any other asset, and you, not we, discuss the details with a notary or lawyer. Rules differ between EU countries, so check locally if the estate isn’t handled in Poland.
5. Work out what kind of storage it is, using the table below.
6. Check safely whether there’s anything in the wallet. See the separate section.
7. Deal with tax. Under Polish law, close family can use an exemption but must report the acquisition on SD-Z2 within 6 months, counted from the date the ruling becomes final or the certificate is registered. We cover it in the guide Inheritance tax on crypto in Poland: SD-Z2.
8. Only at the end, move the funds to your own new wallet. Details are in the last section.

What you found and the first step

What you found	What it usually is	First step
Hardware wallet (Trezor, BitBox, Ledger)	A device that signs transactions, the keys are inside	Secure it, look for the PIN and the backup words, don’t guess the PIN
Paper with 12 or 24 words	A seed phrase, a copy of the keys	Put it away, don’t photograph it, don’t type it anywhere
Metal plate with stamped words	The same backup, fire and water resistant	Treat it like the paper
Wallet app on a phone	A mobile wallet, the keys may exist only on the phone	Don’t delete the app, don’t reset the phone, switch it off and secure it
Messages from an exchange or statements	An exchange account	Don’t log in with the deceased’s details, ask the exchange about its inheritance procedure
A long string of letters and digits on paper	Most likely a wallet address, not a key	The balance can be checked publicly, nothing can be spent
A file or drive labelled wallet	A copy of a wallet on a computer	Copy the file to a separate medium, change nothing
An envelope or notebook “for the family”	Instructions from the owner	Read it before any other step
A password or “25th word” in a note	Probably a passphrase	Don’t throw it away, without it the wallet may look empty

When the table matches several things at once, for example a device and a paper, they’re usually parts of one system. Don’t look for separate wallets in them until you’ve checked.

How to check safely whether there’s anything in the wallet

There’s one aim: to see the balance without putting the funds at risk. For that you usually don’t need to type the words into a computer.

If you have the device and know the PIN, start the manufacturer’s app downloaded from its official site (type the address by hand), connect the device and unlock it on its screen. The app will show the balance and history. You send nothing in the process.

If you only have the words, buy a new hardware wallet from the manufacturer, in sealed packaging, and restore the wallet following the manufacturer’s official instructions. Don’t type the words into any website or app outside those instructions. Don’t use a second-hand device for this.

A zero balance doesn’t prove the wallet is empty. The owner may have used an extra password (passphrase), so the same seed opens a different, hidden wallet. How to recognise that is in the guide Passphrase and the “25th word”. The funds may also be on another device or on an exchange. Zero in one place doesn’t rule out the rest.

For an address, a public block explorer is enough. It shows the balance of any address without any key. It tells you nothing beyond that, but the information is enough to judge the scale of the matter.

What about the formalities

Crypto is estate property. It passes into the estate under the will or by law, as we explain in the guide What happens to your bitcoin when you die. Practically, that means three things for you.

First, without a document confirming your right to the estate, nobody will release funds from an exchange to you. Exchanges have their own procedures and document lists. How long such a procedure takes and what they ask for is in the guide Crypto on an exchange after the owner dies.

Second, for a wallet of your own (with your own keys), no office will “release” the funds to you. You have them if you have access. That’s why the formalities and the technical side are two separate tracks, and they have to meet.

Third, the 6-month SD-Z2 deadline counts from the document, not from the day of death and not from the day you found the wallet. If you learned about part of the estate later, the provision sets a separate deadline, but you have to make it credible that you didn’t know earlier (Article 4a(2) of the Polish inheritance and gift tax act). So write down when and in what circumstances you found the device.

This is not legal or tax advice. For your own case, ask a notary or a tax adviser.

If there are several heirs

Crypto can split siblings faster than a flat, because one person with a paper in a pocket can move everything in a minute and nobody can undo it. So with several heirs, agree the rules before anyone checks anything.

1. Agree who holds the medium (device, paper, phone) and where. One place, one person, the rest know where.
2. Check the balance together, or with a witness who isn’t an heir. Looking at a balance harms nobody, and it prevents suspicion.
3. Write a short dated record: what was found, in what condition, who was present, who took the medium. Without the recovery words.
4. Agree the split of the funds and the method of transfer after the formalities, with a notary or lawyer. What exactly you may do with joint property before the estate is divided is something they should explain to you, not this guide.

This routine has one more benefit: when someone in the family later asks where the crypto is, the answer is on record.

Moving the funds to your own wallet

When the formalities are done and everything is agreed with the other heirs, move the funds to a new wallet. The reason is practical: the old seed may have been seen, photographed or copied out. A new wallet has a seed that only the person who generated it knows.

Do it in this order: buy a new device from the manufacturer, set it up, write down the new words, run a recovery test, send a small test amount, wait for confirmation, and only then move the rest. The full procedure is in the pillar How to secure crypto, and choosing a device is in the pillar Hardware wallet. Ways to store the new seed are in the guide Seed phrase: how to store it.

When to ask for help

Help makes sense when:

1. you don’t know what exactly you found,
2. the amounts are such that a mistake would hurt,
3. the wallet looks empty and you have reason to think it isn’t,
4. there are several heirs and you need to agree a shared plan.

In that case you can start with the check-up: an hour-long online conversation after which you have a list of things to do, most urgent first. We don’t see or accept your recovery words and we have no access to the funds. If a seed is needed, you type it, yourself, on your own device. We don’t promise everything can be recovered. Without the keys, no service provider can open a wallet, and anyone who promises otherwise is suspect.

If you own crypto yourself and want to spare your family this situation, see the pillar Crypto inheritance or the page For family.

Accurate as of 19 October 2026. The description of formalities and tax is for information only and is not legal or tax advice.