Digital asset succession infrastructure
A new safe, for a new kind of estate.
Cryptocurrency now sits inside the legal definition of property in the United Kingdom. Solicitor firms are responsible for it, without the tools to hold it. WYTYC builds the infrastructure that closes that gap.
ContinueThe legal landscape has changed.
The Property (Digital Assets etc.) Act 2025 placed cryptocurrency, NFTs and other on-chain assets into a third category of personal property under English law. Personal representatives and trustees now owe the same fiduciary duties in handling a private key as they do in handling title deeds or a share certificate.
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026 will then bring most cryptoasset activities inside the FCA's perimeter from 25 October 2027, with the Gateway application window open from 30 September 2026 to 28 February 2027.
Solicitor firms are caught in the middle of these two changes. Liable for the assets, expected to act, and equipped with no infrastructure to do so. The closest thing the profession has had until now is a sealed envelope and a hope.
§ 02 - Architecture
Non-custodial. Two paths. Implemented natively on Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana.
A vault with two spending paths, implemented natively on every chain WYTYC supports. The client signs alone, day to day. At succession or incapacity, recovery is gated by a protocol-enforced timelock and the co-signing parties named when the vault was set up. Co-operation is mathematical, not procedural. Firms choose the configuration that suits the estate.
Each chain enforces the rules through its own protocol. Additional chains and digital assets to follow.
Initially via solicitor firms, with direct access for high-net-worth individuals as the regulatory position is clarified.
§ 03 - Verification
Several layers, never one.
Knowing that a death or loss of capacity has actually occurred is the most important question this kind of system has to answer. WYTYC's verification layer combines several independent signals, designed so that no single one is ever sufficient to act on its own.
Activity
An on-chain heartbeat that the client can reset at will. Inactivity raises a flag, but never triggers a path on its own.
Registry
Programmatic verification of a registered death certificate, sourced from independent providers with documented fallbacks.
Solicitor
Confirmation from the firm of record, against the Grant of Probate or - for incapacity - the Lasting Power of Attorney or Deputyship order.
No single signal is ever sufficient. The architecture requires agreement.
§ 04 - For firms
What we provide to private client firms.
A white-label layer that fits inside the firm's existing client onboarding, file management and succession workflow. Whether the trigger is death or loss of capacity, the firm remains the client-facing professional. We sit beneath.
The client vault
A succession-ready vault structure across Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana, set up with the firm's client during their estate planning instructions. Keys are generated on the client's own hardware, or on a brand-new sealed compatible wallet. Nothing is custodied with us, ever.
The succession workflow
When the firm is notified of a death or a loss of capacity, a portal walks the solicitor through verification, evidence capture and the cryptographic recovery path. Death certificates, Grants of Probate, Lasting Powers of Attorney and Deputyship orders sit at the centre of the workflow.
The bereavement pack
For exchange-held assets, where smart contracts cannot reach, WYTYC prepares a pack at onboarding - pre-filled letter templates specific to the exchanges the client uses, written in the compliance language each exchange expects. The solicitor sends it; the executor acts; we never log in.
§ 05 - Regulatory context
The calendar everyone is working to.
Two pieces of legislation set the timeline for digital asset succession in the UK. Neither imposes new duties on individual holders. Both shape the environment WYTYC and the firms it serves are building inside.
Property (Digital Assets etc.) Act
FSMA Cryptoasset Regulations
FEB 2026WYTYC build & opinion
FCA Gateway window
SEP 2026 – FEB 2027Full regime live
The mark
Custody you don't have to hold. Legacy you don't have to lose.
A key, with a tree of life inside it. The key is custody, held in trust and turned only on the terms set when the vault was made. The tree is the legacy that passes through it. WYTYC sits between them.
§ 06 - Team
The team.
Founder & Director
Bhavesh Patel
Five years building in Web3, including a live blockchain product with real users on chain. Ten plus years as a senior software and accounting technical consultant before that. Founded WYTYC to address the digital succession gap the wider crypto industry has not.
Director
Ian Hewitt FFA FIPA
A qualified accountant with over forty years in professional practice. Brings the financial rigour, probate literacy and regulatory discipline this work demands - and that solicitors and personal representatives expect from a serious professional services partner.
Consultant
Simon Ladd
Former Community Manager at Sweat Economy, Corporate Ambassador at SwissBorg, and market analysis instructor at MPW Cambridge - one of the leading feeder colleges to the University of Cambridge.
§ 07 - From the founder
A short note on why this exists.
WYTYC began with a question: if I were to die tomorrow or lose the capacity to manage my own affairs, holding a meaningful balance of cryptocurrency, what would actually happen to it?
The honest answer is usually that it gets lost. Either nobody finds the keys or nobody knows the legal instrument under which the keys can be lawfully touched. Both happen, daily, and the sums involved are no longer small.
The Property (Digital Assets etc.) Act 2025 has now made that a duty rather than a courtesy. Digital assets are property; personal representatives are liable for them, and the tools to discharge that duty in any serious B2B form do not yet exist.
We are quietly building them. WYTYC custodies nothing. We hold one signing key in hardware, and the architecture makes it impossible for us to act alone. What we give private client firms is the means to act and the audit trail to defend the action.
If your firm is looking at the same question, please get in touch.