To pass on a crypto wallet, your family needs 3 things: the wallet’s seed phrase (the 12 or 24 recovery words), any extra passphrase you added, and plain instructions for using them. Store those so that no single person can take the funds before they should, and test that the backup actually restores the wallet.
Crypto is unforgiving. There’s no bank to call. If the seed phrase is lost, the funds are gone for good; if the wrong person reads it, they can move everything in minutes, and nobody can reverse it. A good plan guards against both.
This is general information, not legal or financial advice. Crypto in an estate can have tax and legal consequences. Talk to a lawyer, such as James Miller in our examples, about how to mention it in your will.
What exactly needs to pass on
The seed phrase. For most wallets, 12 or 24 words in a fixed order. Anyone with those words controls the wallet, from anywhere. Whatever you do, the words must exist somewhere offline, written or stamped, with each word numbered.
The passphrase, if you set one. Some wallets let you add an extra word or sentence (sometimes called a “25th word”). Without it, the seed phrase opens a different, empty wallet. Many inheritances fail here: the family finds the words, restores the wallet and sees nothing.
Instructions. Which wallet app or hardware wallet to use, which coins and networks, and what to do step by step. Write them for someone who has never used crypto.
Exchange accounts. Coins held on an exchange aren’t controlled by a seed phrase. The exchange has its own process for a deceased customer’s account, usually with a death certificate and legal documents. List each exchange and the email you use there.
The options, compared
| Option | How it works | Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sealed paper or metal backup with a lawyer or in a safe | One copy of the words, sealed, in one trusted place | Simple, offline, easy for family | One person or one place can expose or lose everything |
| Shamir backup (threshold split) | The wallet creates several shares, and a set number of them restore it, for example 2 of 3 | No single share reveals anything; losing one is fine | Only some hardware wallets support it; shares must be kept apart |
| Multisig | The wallet needs signatures from several keys, for example 2 of 3, held by different people or services | Strongest against theft and mistakes; no single seed phrase moves funds | More complex to set up and to inherit; family needs clear instructions |
| An encrypted vault opened by several people | The words and instructions sit in an encrypted vault; several people must come together to open it | Keeps instructions and words together; no single person can open it | The words are then stored on an internet-connected device |
Don’t split a seed phrase yourself by giving half the words to one person and half to another. Each half makes the rest far easier to guess, and losing one half loses everything. If you want a split, use a scheme designed for it, such as your hardware wallet’s Shamir backup or multisig.
Don’t store a seed phrase in ordinary photos, notes, email or cloud documents. A photo of the words syncs to iCloud Photos; a note syncs to iCloud. Anyone who gets into that account gets the wallet.
Where Bunker fits
Bunker isn’t a wallet and can’t move or sign anything. What a Legacy Vault can do is hold the instructions, the account list and, if you choose, the recovery details, encrypted, so that enough of the people you chose can open them together.
With Bunker Pro, you choose up to 5 trusted contacts and how many must come together, for example any 2 of 3. Each gets a printed Legacy Card with a QR code and 33 words. Bunker’s cards use SLIP-0039, the same published threshold-splitting standard some hardware wallets use for Shamir backup, here applied to the key for one vault. A card alone opens nothing, unless you chose a set of just 1. Enough cards open a read-only copy of that vault, which they can export. A Legacy Card isn’t a wallet backup and can’t be restored in a hardware wallet; it only opens the Bunker vault.
Be honest with yourself about the trade-offs:
- A phone is an online device. A seed phrase in a vault on your iPhone is encrypted, but Bunker doesn’t protect against a compromised or jailbroken device or malware. For large amounts, many people keep the seed phrase itself off every phone and computer, on metal, and use a vault only for the instructions and the location of the backup.
- Bunker can’t know whether you have died. In this version, enough trusted contacts acting together can open a Legacy Vault at any time, including while you’re alive. Bunker usually lets your devices know afterwards, but that’s best-effort, and with crypto a few minutes is enough. A waiting period is planned, not built yet. Choose people you’d trust with the funds today.
- Old cards and copies. If you change who holds cards, Bunker issues new ones and the old ones stop working. But anyone who already opened the vault keeps what they downloaded. If recovery details may have been seen, move the funds to a new wallet.
A sensible pattern for many people: the seed phrase on a metal backup in a safe or with your lawyer; the passphrase, wallet names and step-by-step instructions in a Bunker Legacy Vault; and the cards with 3 different people. Then no single person or place holds everything.
Bunker’s own Recovery Phrase is different
Don’t confuse the two. A wallet’s seed phrase opens a wallet. Bunker’s Recovery Phrase opens one Bunker vault if you forget its Pattern. If you keep wallet details in a vault, that vault’s Recovery Phrase deserves the same care as the seed phrase itself, because it opens everything inside.
An example
Sarah holds a small amount of bitcoin in a hardware wallet with a passphrase. She stamps the 24 words onto a metal backup and gives it, sealed, to her lawyer, James Miller. In a Bunker vault called “Family Papers”, she writes a note: which hardware wallet, where it is, the passphrase, how to restore, and to move the funds to a new wallet straight away. She makes it a Legacy Vault that any 2 of Emma Clarke, Olivia Bennett and James can open. James alone has the words but not the passphrase; the cards alone open the note but not the words. James also holds a card, so he and one other card holder together could reach both, and Sarah chose them knowing that.
Test it
Before you rely on any of this, restore your backup on a spare device, or practice with a test wallet holding a few dollars. A backup you’ve never restored is a guess.