The age group of 18-45 years comprises almost 80 percent of the crypto owners, yet more than half of them do not have an estate plan for crypto/NFT assets!
The adoption of Cryptocurrency and NFTs has been growing at an alarming pace for the past three years. Its growth trajectory is similar to the internet boom in the late 1990s. Emerging as a new asset class with a whopping net worth of over $1 Trillion, cryptocurrency and digital assets are making a name for themselves.
But the biggest concern remains the inheritance and estate laws that haven’t caught up with the pace of the crypto market yet. According to Coincover.com, around 4 million bitcoins are lost because the coin holders failed to pass on access to their loved ones. Surprisingly, the cost of this lost bitcoin, according to the present rate, is just over $77.78 billion!
And despite all of this, there is still uncertainty as people fail to address how to safely, securely, and legally pass on their assets to their loved ones while retaining control of their assets while they are alive.
About the Study
The primary focus of this study is to understand the need for inheritance and legacy planning solutions when it comes to estate planning for digital assets like cryptocurrencies and NFTs. With over 75,000 crypto-made millionaires in the world right now, the question that needs answering is- Will your loved ones be able to inherit your crypto assets if you fail to include them in your crypto estate planning blueprint?
Crypto Legacy: Who are We?
We at Crypto Legacy aim to help cryptocurrency and NFT owners avoid probate for their crypto wealth and enable instant digital inheritance using SMART contracts. It saves years of agony, frustration, and money for families of crypto asset owners while complying with tax and legal regulations.
We understand customer behavior better regarding legacy planning for cryptocurrency using astounding results based on our extensive surveys and market research. The need for a platform that allows hassle-free inheritance of crypto assets is inevitable.
Purpose of the Study
Cryptocurrency exchanges and service providers aren’t equipped to deal with accounts of deceased users and almost none of them offer any legacy plans either. As a downside, a user’s wealth could be locked up until the court proceedings are complete, which can take years.
The primary goal of this study is to understand the mindset of 600 crypto asset owners and whether the crypto owners have a proper estate plan for their crypto assets or not.
And with the results, we understand the primary concerns of the crypto users when it comes to estate planning and the mechanism needed to ensure the better inheritance of their crypto assets.
What are Crypto Assets?
Crypto Assets are a subset of digital assets that use cryptography to secure transactions and distributed ledger technology, such as Blockchain, to create, verify and record transactions. Prominent examples of Crypto assets are cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, etc. It also includes NFTs [Non-Fungible Tokens].
Key Findings
- The age group of 18-45 years comprises almost 80 percent of the crypto owners.
- When passing on wealth, more than 30 percent of crypto asset holders do not have a crypto estate plan. And even those who have planned, approximately half of them are looking for a new and better plan to upgrade to.
- Men are twice more likely to acquire Crypto or NFTs compared to Women.
- Hot Wallets are trending and hold a significant lead over Cold Storage Wallets, with more than 60 percent of users choosing Hot Wallets as their primary storage option.
- More than 50 percent of the users use an exchange-based account for Crypto, yet there is no comprehensive solution that enables them to hand over their keys to their family/friends.
- Less than 30 percent of the users have shared their seed phrases with their loved ones.
- More than 60 percent of the Crypto Asset owners possess assets worth 10k to a million dollars.
- 49% say they are skeptical of commercial solutions and must be convinced of them first.
What product are we building to solve this problem?
When asked the question, if there was a platform where you could create an estate plan and SMART contract that would instantly transfer your crypto wealth when you pass away to your assigned beneficiaries, how likely would you be to use this product, more than 70 percent of the users admitted that they would be willing to use it.
Crypto Legacy’s instant digital inheritance solution enables users to create a SMART contract-powered estate plan, designate beneficiaries, and outline wealth distribution choices while retaining control and flexibility in managing their wallets and funds during their lifetime. The contract executes upon the death/incapacity of the user. In addition, the trust-based estate planning solution eliminates probate that saves years of wasted time and money.
Our solution offers numerous benefits, such as:
- Secrets Vault for Self-Custody Owners: It helps to safeguard seed phrases and set up a consensus-based recovery option. Only the user can authorize recovery, and the guardians must approve the recovery request.
- SMART contract-powered Estate Plan: Create a SMART contract-powered estate plan, designate your beneficiaries, and outline wealth distribution choices. Retain control and flexibility in managing your wallets & funds (self-custody, custodian, NFTs). The SMART contract gets executed upon the death/incapacity of the creator.
Our trust-based estate planning solution offers flexibility and assurance for users and beneficiaries. Users attain confidence and peace of mind that their wealth will be distributed to their heirs according to their wishes. Beneficiaries have relief that they don’t have to jump through the legal, tax, and regulatory hurdles and receive seamless wealth transfer.
Conclusion
The study helps us conclude that while most crypto/NFTs owners worry about passing on their assets to their loved ones, most fail to plan for it properly. It can also be credited to the lack of adequate inheritance planning solutions such as Crypto Will for digital assets such as cryptocurrency and NFTs.
Methodology
Our team conducted extensive surveys, market research, and user interviews with over 600 participants aged 18 to 70 based on a well-defined questionnaire. It helped us understand the user behavior related to Crypto Will and legacy planning for cryptocurrency.
