Contents
Crypto Inheritance: Industry Roundup - January 2025
Vault12’s monthly update on regs, the industry, and crypto inheritance management.
- Regs Update
- Vault12 Guard Product Updates
- Industry Updates
- New to Inheritance? Start here.
Regs Update
Following the inauguration of United States President Trump, we eagerly await new clarity on the state of crypto innovation in the US. Acting chairs are in place at both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (Mark Uyeda) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) (Caroline Pham) whilst the nominee process is completed. Just yesterday, the SEC announced that a new Crypto Taskforce has been created, headed up by the extremely experienced Commissioner Hester Peirce.
We at Vault12 are excited, as we have met all of these commissioners at meetings set up by The Digital Chamber of Commerce. We’ll have more on this soon.
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EU
After much preparation, a new European Union crypto regulatory framework — MiCA — went into effect at the end of December 2024. MiCA regulations offer more clarity for crypto-asset service providers and related firms operating in Europe. Unfortunately, this additional red tape is being applied just when the US market for crypto is finally opening up. This suggests that few US companies will be willing to invest the time, attention, or money to comply with the new rules and take advantage of the developing European crypto market. It will be interesting to see how MiCA evolves in response to US Market momentum during 2025. Vault12 will be keeping an eye on this.
UK
Meanwhile, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulatory body has published a new discussion paper as part of its crypto regulation roadmap. So far, like MiCA, it contains more reinvention of the wheel, bringing little to no efficiencies and simply more stifling burdens placed on fledgling companies. Vault12 is part of a group of industry experts commenting on the FCA’s proposal via CryptoUK, and will be providing constructive feedback.
With continuing regulator-sanctioned debanking of crypto companies, combined with enormous paperwork and time burdens, it is virtually impossible for a US startup company to continue operations in the UK at this time. These regulations coming just as the US takes crypto by the horns suggests that again, companies will give the UK a wide berth until it responds with efficient regulations that make sense for entrepreneurs and supports innovation in this this space. What is particularly sad is that this regulatory stance is at odds with not only the previous UK government but also the government of the day. British people deserve better.
Vault12 Guard Product Updates
In November and December, Vault12 issued three releases containing improvements to the Vault12 Guard product. You can read about them on our website Releases page. Particularly exciting is a new voice-based capability that adds another layer of security to your communication with your chosen crypto asset Guardians.
[Learn More]
Industry News
Last month saw a LOT of roundups and predictions for 2025 — but the biggest news is that the US Crypto industry is now enthusiastically “open for business” as of January 20, 2025.
In other news from 2024, after a massive delay, we finally saw the new Ledger Stax wallet delivered to customers, and we have been busy putting it through its paces in a series of comparison articles. The “net-net” of our evaluation highlights the fact that just because you have a hardware wallet doesn't mean your assets are backed up and set up for inheritance to future generations. You will need to handle that separately (and thankfully, Vault12 is here to help you with that).
Crypto Inheritance
Are you unsure about how a crypto inheritance plan is different from a regular estate plan? We offer a quick overview: https://vault12.com/blog/crypto-inheritance-planning/. For extra motivation, also consider What happens to your crypto when you die? Even though that day may be far off, it’s better to be prepared sooner rather than later.
See you next month.
Thanks for reading Vault12 Crypto Inheritance Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.
Crypto Inheritance: Industry Roundup - January 2025
Vault12’s monthly update on regs, the industry, and crypto inheritance management.
Wasim Ahmad
Wasim is a serial entrepreneur and an advisor in the fields of AI, blockchain, cryptocurrency, and encryption solutions. At Vault12, he led the private and public fundraising efforts and focuses today on expanding the Vault12 ecosystem. His crypto experience began with AlphaPoint, where he worked with the founding team to launch the world's first crypto trading exchanges. Previously he was a founding member of Voltage Security, a spinout from Stanford University, that launched Identity-Based Encryption (IBE), a breakthrough in Public Key Cryptography, and pioneered the use of sophisticated data encryption to protect sensitive data across the world's payment systems. Wasim serves on the board of non-profit, StartOut, and is a Seedcamp and WeWork Labs global mentor.
Wasim graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics and French from the University of Sussex.
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You will lose your Bitcoin and other crypto when you die...
...unless you set up Crypto Inheritance Management today.
It's simple — if you don't worry about crypto inheritance, nobody else will — not your software or hardware wallet vendors, not your exchanges, and not your wealth managers. So it's up to you to think about how to protect the generational wealth you have created, and reduce the risks around passing that crypto wealth on to your family and heirs. What are the challenges with crypto inheritance?
- Crypto Wallets are difficult to use and do not offer crypto inheritance management. In fact, most of them tell you to write down your seed phrase on a piece of paper, which is practically useless.
- Some people back up their wallet seed phrases or private keys on paper, local devices like hardware wallets or USBs, or in the cloud. All of these options have severe drawbacks that range from hacking to accidental loss to disrupted cloud services.
- Software wallets operate onspecific blockchains, yet your crypto assets span multiple blockchains. For inheritance to work, you must be able to manage inheritance across every blockchain — now and forever.
Crypto Inheritance Management: Secure, Self-Custody Crypto Inheritance and Backup
Vault12 is the pioneer in Crypto Inheritance Management, offering a simple yet powerful way to designate a legacy contact and pass on your crypto assets—like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) —to future generations. Built for everyday users yet robust enough for the most seasoned crypto enthusiasts, Vault12 Guard ensures your wallet seed phrases and private keys are preserved in a fully self-sovereign manner, across all Blockchains.
At the heart of Vault12 Guard is quantum-resistant cryptography and a decentralized, peer-to-peer network of trusted Guardians. Your critical information is never stored in the cloud, on Vault12 servers, or even on local devices—dramatically reducing the risk of a single point of failure. By fusing a powerful software layer with the Secure Element of iOS devices (Secure Enclave) and Google devices (Strongbox), Vault12 Guard locks down your private keys against present and future threats.
Our innovative approach harnesses social recovery, enabling you to appoint one or more trusted individuals or mobile devices as Guardians. These Guardians collectively safeguard your protected seed phrases in a decentralized digital Vault—so there’s no need for constant lawyer updates or bulky paperwork. Should the unexpected happen, your chosen legacy contact can seamlessly inherit your crypto assets without compromising your privacy or security.
Preserve your digital wealth for generations to come with Vault12 Guard—the simplest, most secure way to manage crypto inheritance and backup.
Take the first step and back up your crypto wallets.
Designed to be used alongside traditional hardware and software crypto wallets, Vault12 Guard helps cryptocurrency owners back up their wallet seed phrases and private keys (assets) without storing anything in the cloud or any single location. This increases protection and decreases the risks of loss. Making sure you have an up to date back up is the first step in crypto inheritance management.
The Vault12 Guard app enables secure decentralized backups and provides inheritance for all your seed phrases and private keys across any blockchain, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, ERC-20, and other crypto wallets.
Note: For anyone unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies, Vault12 refers to wallet seed phrases and private keys as assets, crypto assets, and digital assets. The Vault12 Guard app includes a software wallet that works alongside your digital Vault. The primary purpose of this is to guard your Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH) wallet seed phrases, private keys, and other essential data, now and for future generations.
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