Exchange or self-custody wallet?

One decision determines the route after a crypto death: is the asset with a company, or self-custodied? Everything that follows (the documents, the procedures, who can help, how long it takes) branches from this single answer.

Why it matters

When crypto sits with an exchange, a company holds the keys and controls the procedures. There is a defined party to deal with, and its official procedure for account holders who have passed away applies. When crypto is self-custodied, no central party exists: what happens depends entirely on the devices, phrases, passwords and files the owner left behind. The first case is an administrative process; the second is an access problem.

The four custody models

• Custodial exchange (an account with a company (Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, Bitvavo…). The exchange holds the keys; you hold a login. After a death: the official procedure for account holders who have passed away applies) death certificate, probate or equivalent documents, transfer request. No password is needed; documents are.
• Self-custody, keys held by the owner (hardware wallet, software wallet, paper). After a death: access depends entirely on the seed phrase, passphrase, passwords and devices that exist.
• Multisig, several independent keys; a threshold must sign. After a death: find the key holders and the quorum rules; the wallet’s descriptors and derivation information matter.
• Smart-contract wallet (Safe and similar), governed by an owner list and threshold, no single seed phrase. Recovery runs through owner replacement or recovery modules, not password guessing.

How to tell them apart

Emails, account statements, logins and 2FA devices point to an exchange. Devices, recovery sheets, wallet files and public addresses point to self-custody. A QR code or address alone does not tell you which. When in doubt, collect both kinds of evidence and let the inventory answer it later.

Your next step

• Exchange: follow the official procedure and never log in without authority.
• Self-custody: preserve everything, then identify the components.
• Multisig/smart-contract: document the structure before anything else, and note that the rules of the contract keep running after a death.