Structures that work with Bitcoin.

The core question

When you hold significant Bitcoin inside a business, you are making three decisions at once: who technically controls the keys, who legally owns the asset, and what happens to it in the event of death, incapacity, or sale. The wrong combination can leave you with keys you control but no legal claim, or a legal claim with no practical access.

This page is a high-level introduction. Specific jurisdictional advice is a consulting engagement, not a blog post. What follows is the framework we use when starting that conversation.

Entity types

The common options are sole trader, limited company, partnership, trust, and foundation. For Bitcoin-holding businesses with material balances, the sole-trader structure is usually the weakest — it mixes personal and business assets in a way that exposes both to correlated risk. Limited companies provide separation but introduce corporate tax considerations at every movement of the asset. Trusts and foundations are more complex but can offer significant advantages for long-term holding and succession.

Jurisdiction

Jurisdictional choice matters more for Bitcoin than for traditional businesses. Tax treatment varies dramatically. Some jurisdictions treat Bitcoin as property for capital gains; others as foreign currency; others as a commodity. The legal framework for self-custody, for inheritance, and for creditor protection varies just as widely.

We generally do not recommend jurisdiction shopping as a primary strategy. The friction and complexity of operating a business across borders rarely justifies the tax arbitrage. But when a business is being set up from scratch, the choice of home jurisdiction is worth making deliberately rather than defaulting to wherever the founder happens to live.

Custody

Business custody is a distinct topic from personal self-custody. It must survive the absence, incapacity, or departure of any single person in the business. It must be auditable for tax and accounting purposes. It must not create a single point of failure that could be exploited by an employee or an external attacker.

Multi-signature setups with keys distributed across directors, geographically separated backups, and clear written procedures for access are the baseline. The specifics depend on the business's size, structure, and risk tolerance.