When Jake Claver and Max Avery launched Digital Ascension Group, they were solving their own problem — how to manage significant crypto wealth with the same sophistication traditional family offices bring to legacy assets.
From Early Adopters to Asset Protectors
Like many early crypto investors, Claver’s journey began with conviction. After watching a debate between Peter Schiff and a Bitcoin advocate, he shifted from equities to digital assets long before the 2020–2021 boom. The bet paid off — and quickly created new challenges.
Claver needed accountants who understood crypto taxation, lawyers who could structure estates involving digital wallets, and advisors fluent in both blockchain and traditional finance. None existed.
Conventional wealth managers avoided crypto due to risk and compliance barriers; blockchain specialists lacked the broader financial expertise needed for multigenerational planning. The gap was glaring.
Building Infrastructure for Digital Wealth
Recognising this disconnect, Claver and Avery founded Digital Ascension Group in Dallas in 2022 — a purpose-built family office for digital asset holders. Their mission: deliver institutional-level wealth management for crypto investors without forcing them to abandon their core holdings.
Why Family Offices Matter Now
There are now more than 240,000 crypto millionaires, a number up 40% year-on-year. Yet most have never faced the complexity that comes with protecting significant wealth.
In just the first half of 2025, cybercrime targeting digital assets cost investors nearly $2 billion. Managing private keys or wallets personally might have worked at $50,000 — but not at $5 million.
Family offices provide the consolidated oversight wealthy households have relied on for over a century — integrating investments, taxes, estates, and governance under one umbrella. For crypto investors, that structure is not a luxury but a safeguard.
The Hidden Pitfalls of Crypto Wealth
Digital assets bring unique risks that traditional structures fail to address:
- Inheritance gaps: billions in crypto are lost because access credentials die with the holder.
- Tax complexity: staking rewards, DeFi yield, and token sales each trigger different tax treatments.
- Legal exposure: lawsuits, divorces, and bankruptcies can threaten digital wealth without proper structuring.
Standard estate documents rarely include wallet instructions or recovery protocols. The average accountant still lacks the software or fluency to handle crypto reporting correctly.
A New Kind of Family Office
Digital Ascension Group unites blockchain expertise with the rigour of traditional wealth management.
Its services span:
- Entity formation and legal shielding
- Institutional-grade custody and insurance
- Specialised tax planning for digital transactions
- Estate frameworks with built-in wallet succession
Through its SEC-registered subsidiary, Digital Wealth Partners, the firm provides investment management, secure custody, multi-signature access, and consolidated reporting — showing crypto and traditional assets side by side. Every client relationship aligns tax, legal, and investment functions into a cohesive whole.
When to Professionalise
A family office becomes essential once your digital wealth involves multiple entities, jurisdictions, or generations. Self-management might suffice early on, but complexity quickly compounds — and mistakes can cost millions. Like insurance, the real value lies in prevention, not reaction.
Preserving Wealth Across Generations
Claver often references the Vanderbilt family — once America’s richest, later bankrupt within three generations — as a lesson in the dangers of neglecting governance.
Digital Wealth Partners embeds that wisdom into its model: family charters, mission statements, and education frameworks to maintain discipline and stewardship among heirs.
Within a year of launch, the firm oversaw roughly $1 billion in digital assets — driven not by marketing but by unmet demand.
Protecting the Future of Digital Fortunes
Today’s crypto millionaires face the same fundamental challenge the Rockefellers once did: transforming newfound wealth into enduring legacy. Professional guidance isn’t about ceding control; it’s about creating systems that protect it.
For those navigating custody, taxation, and succession in the crypto economy, Digital Ascension Group offers what traditional finance could not — a bridge between digital innovation and institutional discipline.
