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.
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.