Crypto Inheritance Update: January 2026
A newsletter for Vault12’s customers on regs, the industry, and crypto inheritance.
Highlights:
It’s the one year anniversary of this iteration of our Newsletter, thanks to everyone who subscribes and reposts.
There’s a new season of Amazon Prime’s Fallout and this season we hope to see inside Vault 12. To celebrate, as we are all superfans, here’s a promo code: FALLOUT26.
As we go deeper into 2026, the mantra is going to be ‘Prepare for the future, the crypto market is opening’, but first let’s take a look at what’s been happening in the long month of January.
***Key Highlight: In this weeks fireside chat between SEC Chair Paul S. Atkins and CFTC Chair Michael S. Selig, held in Washington, D.C, both committed to proceeding with guidance and rule making for the industry in parallel with the Market Structure Bill’s passage into law. This is very important news as SEC/CFTC guidance and rule making can be accomplished without the slings, arrows and delays of political manoeuvrings. ***
Regulatory Clarity Needs: Congress and regulators are trying to reduce ambiguity over token classifications — a key reason the crypto market structure bill seeks specific definitions for utility/network tokens versus security tokens. Clearer definitions reduce legal risk for issuers and exchanges.
SEC & CFTC Roles: Future rules are likely to reflect coordinated SEC/CFTC thinking — with SEC focusing on traditional securities functions and CFTC on commodities/utility tokens — although statutory law may ultimately settle the boundaries.
Impact on Inheritance & Custody: Classification affects how tokens are treated in estate planning, custody, and compliance — because security tokens carry more stringent regulatory baggage that affects transferability and fiduciary obligations.
United States
U.S. Crypto Market Structure Bill Movement
January’s final week saw crucial momentum (and friction) around a landmark crypto market structure bill aimed at defining how digital assets are regulated in the United States:
Progress and content:
The U.S. Senate’s Agriculture Committee advanced the “Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act”—legislation that would give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) clear authority over digital commodity markets, define digital commodity intermediaries, and strengthen consumer protections and registration frameworks.
Updated text of the bill incorporates several definitions for digital assets and reinforces joint rulemaking responsibilities for the SEC and CFTC on key market rules (e.g., trading, intermediaries, delisting processes).
Despite these advances, the bill faces partisan divides and broader hurdles: the Senate Agriculture Committee passed it largely along party lines, without full bipartisan support, and negotiations continue with the Senate Banking Committee and House-passed CLARITY Act language to reconcile competing visions.
SEC & CFTC Joint Fireside Chat — Regulatory Harmonization
A standout regulatory event this month was the joint public session between SEC Chair Paul S. Atkins and CFTC Chair Michael S. Selig, held in Washington, D.C., focusing on harmonizing oversight in crypto markets.
Key takeaways from their dialogue:
Inter-agency coordination is a priority: Both chairs emphasized working together to eliminate confusing and overlapping jurisdictional silos for market participants.
Alignment with broader U.S. policy goals: They framed harmonization as critical to making the United States the crypto capital of the world, aligning with the administration’s strategic vision.
Collaborative future rulemaking: The fireside chat and preceding remarks suggested the agencies will pursue coordinated rulemakings and potentially formalize a memorandum of understanding to streamline crypto oversight pending further legislation.
Messaging from both regulators also signaled a regulatory shift toward clarity and growth-oriented frameworks versus purely enforcement-driven models.
The January 2026 crypto market structure bill drafts are moving toward formal terminology such as “network token”, which is essentially a type of utility token. These are defined as digital assets that primarily support the operation, security, or utility of a decentralized network, without embodying a financial claim against an issuer. Tokens that meet these criteria would explicitly not be treated as securities under federal securities laws.
Prior CFTC working group proposals (not yet final rules) describe a utility token as one that conveys immediately available non-incidental utility, such as access to services, discounts, special access, governance/voting, or other built-in benefits directly tied to the token’s function — not future financial returns.
Key Takeaway:
Utility (or network) tokens are about access and function — not investment returns. If a token’s primary purpose is to grant usage rights or network participation without promising profits from the token itself, it aligns with utility/network token definitions under emerging regulatory language.
United Kingdom
UK inheritance tax guidance:
HMRC issued reminders that cryptoassets must be declared and correctly valued in inheritance tax (IHT) returns — stressing that crypto holdings are treated like other taxable estate assets and that inaccuracies can trigger penalties or delays for executors and beneficiaries.
Legal status of digital assets in estates:
Under the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 in the UK, digital assets are now formally recognised as personal property — reinforcing that crypto tokens and related rights can be included in wills and probate proceedings in the same way as physical property.
Industry attention to inheritance risks:
Commentary and reporting highlighted that millions in crypto wealth remain at risk of vanishing due to poor estate planning, lost keys, or fiduciaries unfamiliar with digital asset mechanics — evidence that practical inheritance planning is still catching up with legal recognition.
Let us know if you have a favourite exchange who should power inheritance for their customers using Vault12 (for less than a dollar a day). Don’t forget to send a message to your crypto platform provider, recommending Vault12.
*NEW* Promo Codes for Vault12 Guard
The promo codes for iOS are good for a 1 year subscription at no cost, then will revert to standard price for the Inheritance plan. iOS codes can be redeemed in the Apple App Store.
The promo codes for Android are good for 90 days subscription at no cost, then will revert to standard price for the Inheritance plan. Android codes are redeemed when selecting and paying for the Inheritance plan in the app.
See instructions for how to redeem here.
Code: NL0525
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=1451596986&code=NL0525
Android: Enter code NL0525 when you select the Inheritance plan
| Vault12 Guard iOS | Vault12 Guard Android
Panels & Podcasts:
In five years time it won’t be called crypto, it will just be money
Digital Commonwealth Summit: How the shift in US policy and regulation is reshaping Digital Assets
Genzio Podcast: Crypto Inheritance and Quantum safe encryption
Vault12 Guard Product Update
The Vault12 Engineering team created a new open-source release of electron-webauthn-mac, a native WebAuthn/Passkey implementation for Electron apps on macOS that ports Apple's platform authenticators (Touch ID and iCloud Keychain) and cross-device passkey flows directly inside Electron-based desktop applications. Learn more.
The Vault12 Engineering team released a new plugin for the cross-platform development environment, Capacitor, that gives app developers the ability to create quantum-safe data storage using Shamir’s Secret Sharing, the plugin is tried and tested and has been used within Vault12 Guard for several years. Learn more.
Vault12 Guard now supports the new Credential Exchange Protocol (CXP) that has just launched on Apple iPhones. Now fill your Vault with passwords from Apple Password or other password managers on iOS 26 and macOS 26. Secrets can be imported directly into your Vault, and restored back to your password manager if your device is lost or your account locked. Back up your passwords today.
Faster, smoother performance with fresh optimisations and bug fixes.
All product updates | Release Notes | Vault12 Guard iOS | Vault12 Guard Android
New to Crypto Inheritance? Start here.
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I’m now a producer for an upcoming movie, “The Bitcoin Executor” - it tells the story of an economics professor named Ken who becomes the executor of a will for Dr. Dean Sinautra, a friend and colleague who has mysteriously disappeared.
Although philosophically opposed, Ken takes on the task of personally delivering a set of Bitcoin hardware wallets to Dean’s chosen heirs. In the process Ken attempts to find clues that could solve the mystery of Dean’s disappearance. The discoveries made along the way force him to question the things he thought he knew so well.
Bonus for Our Loyal Subscribers
If you’re on iOS, you can snag a free year. On Android? 90 days free. Promo codes have been flying around in our recent podcasts and panels, but here’s one just for you, dear reader: NL0525 – grab it now with our guide: “How to Claim Your Vault12 Guard Promo Codes for iOS and Android”.