Wealthy crypto entrepreneurs and traders are increasingly being turned away by trust companies worried about the volatility and money-laundering risks associated with digital assets. A growing number of people who either invested their inherited wealth in crypto or made huge gains from crypto businesses or bets on tokens have been seeking to put their assets into an offshore trust structure to protect them for future generations or for tax savings. But trust companies are becoming nervous about accepting either the volatile digital tokens themselves or the potentially opaque profits from the sale of these assets, say lawyers and trustees.

British taxpayers sold £13.8bn of crypto assets in the year to April 2025, according to figures from the UK tax authority, with most sales by men under 45. Nearly 250 made capital gains of more than £1mn on their disposals. Trustees have a fiduciary duty to protect assets handed over to them that often extends not just to the person who set up the trust but to younger generations and even to as yet unborn children.

This makes them cautious about anything they perceive as risky, which can include venture capital investments as well as crypto. Withers’ Tee cited “failures such as FTX” — the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange led by Sam Bankman-Fried, who was later jailed for fraud — and “people losing keys to crypto wallets” as risks that unsettled trustees. Nevertheless, a small number of trust companies are promoting themselves as specialists in cryptocurrencies.

Andrew Horbury, chief executive of UAE-based Cavenwell Group, said: “There are now a plethora of very good-quality, sophisticated tools for screening digital assets.”.