Uphold Fills Estate-Planning Gap with Vault Inheritance

Uphold, a provider of assisted self-custody wallets, has introduced Vault Inheritance, a feature that allows customers to name a beneficiary for their Bitcoin (BTC), XRP, and Hedera (HBAR) holdings. This feature is designed to address a gap in the estate-planning process for crypto holders, where assets are often left stranded due to lack of access after the owner's death. According to Uphold, nearly 4 million BTC, worth around $331 billion, are at risk of being lost forever due to this issue.

The new feature allows customers to invite a beneficiary directly from the dashboard, who will be notified and guided to set up an Uphold account to receive the assets after the owner's death. The beneficiary will not have access to the assets while the owner is alive, and the designation can be changed at any time. After the owner passes away, Uphold's compliance team will verify the legal documentation before transferring control into the beneficiary's Uphold wallet.

Vault Inheritance costs $19.99 a month, and existing Vault customers will see the new plan reflected after December 31, 2026. U.S. users will get a free 30-day trial. The launch of Vault Inheritance is seen as a response to the growing trend of self-custody wallets, with other providers like Kresus introducing similar inheritance services in recent months.

Nancy Beaton, Uphold's president of consumer, said, 'Crypto has become a real part of how people build their financial future, but unlike traditional assets, there are few ways to pass it on securely, especially for XRP holders.'

The introduction of Vault Inheritance is seen as a step towards closing the estate-planning hole in the crypto space, where billions of dollars in assets could potentially be lost due to lack of access.