Binance recently introduced new emergency contact and inheritance settings in a platform upgrade carried out on June 12. This move comes after ongoing industry discussions around the growing problem of unclaimed digital assets following the death or incapacity of users.
Every year, people who pass away in accidents leave behind more than $1 billion worth of cryptocurrencies locked in centralized platforms. Most family members do not even know the deceased owned crypto or which exchanges held the assets they invested in.
This lack of awareness turns those accounts into dormant holdings that go untouched for years and often become forgotten entirely. Two common outcomes result from such cases: either the assets rise significantly in value or become permanently inaccessible.
Many tokens in these dormant accounts have experienced value surges, multiplying hundreds of times without anyone retrieving them. Executives at some Chinese exchanges inherited large volumes of such coins as Dogecoin, significantly increasing their fortunes.
Between 2018 and 2021, thousands of crypto exchanges shut down without prior notice, leading users to lose their unclaimed assets. Many early exchange owners earned their first major profits from accounts that users forgot or failed to withdraw funds from.
Binance dormant accounts created wealth for exchanges
However, Binance and OKX, two of the world’s leading exchanges, are believed to hold large numbers of these dormant user accounts. The new firm’s emergency contact feature now allows users to designate heirs and submit inheritance applications securely and clearly.
All trading websites must include this option so digital assets get to the intended recipients on a fair and trackable basis. Sites must grant minors the ability to maintain restricted accounts so they can lawfully accept the inheritance of crypto without issues or refusal.
The assets of the man became inaccessible since nobody had the account information or the exchange sites on which the individual had traded. Proper inheritance support in the crypto industry is no longer optional; it has become an essential responsibility for all exchanges.
