The inheritance of cryptocurrency and cryptowallet profiles

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47272/KIKPhD.2026.1.4

Keywords:

Cryptocurrency, Digital inheritance, Non-fungible tokens, Post-mortem, Online accounts

Abstract

The digitalisation is one of the most important aspect in the twenty-first century, and thus huge amount of personal data is being accumulated about each person day-by-day. It is still a debate in many countries who we could view these datasets after the passing of the person and whether the heirs should have the right to access and maintain the dignity, memory of the deceased. One of the element of the so-called ’digital inheritance’ would be cryptocurrency which contains an enormous economic potential. This study explores and highlights the reality, the possibility of the inheritance of cryptocurrency, also the wallets, especially the online platform accounts, which these assets are stored in, in a European context through the already existing cases in the world.

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Author Biography

Tamás Puskás, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences

Assistant lecturer, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences

Doctorate student, University of Pécs, Doctoral School of Law

Corresponding address: puskas.tamas@pte.hu

 

Statements

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, or publication of this article.

Data deposition and availability

There is no data set associated with the study. No data deposition was required for this study.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

The authors used Perplexity AI solely as an auxiliary tool to identify potentially relevant scientific literature. All sources, references, interpretations, arguments and conclusions were independently checked, selected and verified by the authors. The authors take full responsibility for the content of the manuscript.

Author contributions (CRediT)

Tamás Puskás: Conceptualization; Methodology; Investigation; Formal analysis; Resources; Data curation; Writing – Original Draft; Writing – Review & Editing. 

References

Di Bernardino C and others, NFT – Legal Token Classification (EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum 2021) <https://blockchain-observatory.ec.europa.eu/publications/nft-legal-token-classification_en> accessed 31 March 2026

European Law Institute, ELI Principles on the Use of Digital Assets as Security (Report, European Law Institute 2022) <https://www.europeanlawinstitute.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/p_eli/Publications/ELI_Principles_on_the_Use_of_Digital_Assets_as_Security.pdf> accessed 31 March 2026

Garbers-von Boehm K, Haag H and Gruber K, Intellectual Property Rights and Distributed Ledger Technology with a Focus on Art NFTs and Tokenized Art (European Parliament, Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs 2022) <https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2022/737709/IPOL_STU(2022)737709_EN.pdf> accessed 31 March 2026

Halász Zs, ‘The Development of Crypto Legislation in Europe’ (2024) 12(1) Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law 439 https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748946526-439

Juhász Á, ‘Inheriting Digital Assets – A Glimpse Into the Future’ (2024) 14(4) Juridical Tribune – Review of Comparative and International Law 547 https://doi.org/10.62768/TBJ/2024/14/4/02

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Published

2026-03-31

How to Cite

Puskás, Tamás. “The Inheritance of Cryptocurrency and Cryptowallet Profiles”. Közigazgatási és Infokommunikációs Jogi PhD Tanulmányok (PhD Studies in Administrative and ICT Law), vol. 7, no. 1, Mar. 2026, pp. 57-62, doi:10.47272/KIKPhD.2026.1.4.

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Section

Articles