How does an executor get access to a deceased person's cryptocurrency if no one has the private key?

There is no Ontario statute written specifically for cryptocurrency, so an executor's authority here comes from the same general principles that apply to any other estate asset: once appointed, an estate trustee has a fiduciary duty under the Trustee Act and Estates Act to locate, secure, and administer estate property with reasonable care. The practical problem is different from a bank account, though. If the private key or seed phrase existed only in the deceased's head or on a device no one can access, there is no company or court to compel, because no institution controls the asset the way a bank controls an account.

Start by checking whether the holding was custodial (held on an exchange, which can potentially assist with an account-recovery process once shown proof of death and estate trustee authority) or self-custodied in a personal wallet, where only the key holder can move funds. Search thoroughly for hardware wallets, written backups, password managers, and estate-planning notes. If a key is genuinely lost, the coins may be permanently unrecoverable even though they remain, in law, part of the estate. Document the search and the loss carefully for the estate's records and for beneficiaries.