Binance founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ) reminded in a post this afternoon on X that digital wealth lacking an inheritance channel after the holder's passing may forever sink into a black hole. He called on every platform to establish a 'will function' and mentioned that regulatory measures should allow minors to have receiving accounts.
Binance launches inheritance function
CZ spoke on this topic because Binance launched the 'Emergency Contact and Inheritance' function in mid-June, allowing users to designate trusted individuals to assist legal heirs in obtaining assets after submitting notifications and legal documents. Community users have already seen this function after updating the app.
A KOL wrote: 'Every year, there are cases around the world of accidental deaths resulting in over one billion dollars of crypto assets being inherited by centralized exchanges,' hoping that other exchanges can also speed up and launch this inheritance function.
Self-custody dilemma
It can be expected that centralized platforms will expand support for this service as cryptocurrency becomes more popular in the future. However, self-custody users must invest more effort; otherwise, if private keys are lost or not communicated to friends and family, the assets will permanently disappear.
Experts suggest that users should prepare for the unexpected by utilizing platform inheritance tools or planning through trusts and professional custody services, securely recording private keys and recovery information, as people always find it difficult to predict accidents.
Zhao Changpeng's call and Binance's new function, while not the end point, have opened the curtain on the issue of crypto inheritance. Platform innovation, legal support, and user self-discipline will jointly determine whether assets can avoid becoming an inaccessible 'black hole' in the future.