The Bitcoin inheritance gap between a will and a wallet

An executor can know that an estate owns Bitcoin and still have no way to move it. An exchange can ask for proof of authority and transfer a balance under its procedures. A wallet controlled by the deceased person’s keys needs a separate path to produce a valid signature. An estate can establish entitlement to Bitcoin before it has the practical means to move it. The handover depends on who holds the keys and how the wallet is configured. Coinbase’s deceased-account process gives claimants a route to prove authority over assets the exchange holds.