Can stolen crypto be recovered?

If the platform wants a fee, a tax, a "security deposit" or proof of funds before you can take money out, the balance on the screen isn't real. The numbers were made up to bring in the next payment. Paying is how most losses double.

The same goes for an "account manager" who says your account is frozen for suspected money laundering and needs a deposit to unlock.

Shared a login, a code or a recovery phrase? Move any coins left in that wallet to a new one. Change your passwords from a device the scammers never touched, and turn on two-step verification, starting with your email and your exchange.

Sent the platform a photo of your ID? Freeze your credit and report it at IdentityTheft.gov.

• Every address you sent to, and the transaction IDs (sometimes called hashes) from your exchange or wallet history.
• The exchange or crypto ATM you sent from, and the receipts.
• The site or app's address, and screenshots of your "account" and its balance.
• The chats, with the names and numbers used.

Don't delete the app or the conversation, even if you want to. It's the evidence. Keep it for years: seizures can come long after the loss, and your records are how you show the coins were yours.

Crypto can be frozen only where it lands with a business that answers to someone:

• a large exchange that checks its customers’ IDs;
• other crypto services that work with law enforcement, such as some instant swap services;
• the companies behind USDT and USDC, which can freeze their own coins wherever they sit.

Exchanges and swap services may act on a request from police or a lawyer. The coin issuers usually act only for law enforcement or a court. All of them want the addresses and transaction IDs.

A freeze holds the coins. Some services send them back once police confirm the fraud. More often, getting them back takes a court order or a seizure by law enforcement.

The people who did this usually move coins on within hours or days, through more wallets, swap services and often onto another chain. The longer it takes, the more likely the coins are cashed out or swapped into ones no one can freeze. That’s why the report and the freeze request come first.

1. Your local police, in person, first. Ask whether someone from a digital crimes unit, or with experience in crypto cases, can take it on. If no one there can, ask who in your county or state can. Get a report number. Some services return frozen coins only once police confirm the case.
2. The FBI at ic3.gov, the same day if you can, with every address and transaction ID.
3. The exchange you sent from. It can flag the receiving addresses.
4. The FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

After a crypto loss, recovery offers arrive fast: in ads, in comments, in direct messages. Many are the same fraud a second time. Walk away if it:

• contacted you first;
• wants payment in crypto or gift cards, or money before you've signed a written agreement that names the lawyer and the work;
• quotes a success rate, or says it has recovered money for people like you;
• says it can "hack back", reverse a blockchain transaction, or works with the FBI.

A real law firm names its lawyer, and you can look that lawyer up in the state's attorney register. For New York, that's the court system's attorney search. Use the same test on us.

A loss to a fake investment can be a deductible theft loss. A March 2025 IRS memo uses this kind of scheme as its own example. Larkspire, Inc., our sister company, has a free check of whether a loss can be deducted on larkspiretax.com.

Someone has to follow the coins to the exchange, service or issuer that can freeze them, and ask in a form it will act on. We keep our own record of who to write to on each major exchange's compliance team, and how fast each has acted on past requests, so a freeze request reaches the right desk the first time.

Following coins across wallets and chains used to take an investigator weeks. Software now does much of the tracing, and an investigator reviews each case. At Larkspire Law, freeze requests usually go out within 24 to 48 hours of signing, as soon as the tracing is done.

Because software does much of the work, the fee is set in writing before any work starts: a flat fee or none, plus a share only if money comes back. Nothing else comes out of your pocket, and we never ask for payment in crypto.