Cryptocurrency Stolen? We Trace, Freeze & Recover.
Your crypto was stolen through a scam, hack, or unauthorized transfer. We trace the funds across blockchains, freeze them on exchanges through legal channels, and recover them through court orders or negotiation. Every hour counts — the faster you act, the higher the chance of recovery.
◉ Nils Silinevics · Former FIU investigator◉ Chainalysis & Elliptic certified◉ Court orders in 14 jurisdictions
Valken Forensics
CASE #VLK-2026-0847
ACTIVE INVESTIGATION — FUNDS LOCATED ON EXCHANGE
STOLEN AMOUNT
$124,850.00
ETH → BSC → USDT → Binance deposit
TRANSACTION GRAPH
VictimHop 1Hop 2Split → Exchange
RECOVERY STATUS
Traced
Frozen
Court order
Recovered
valken.legal/forensicsUPDATED 26·VI·2026 · 14:22 UTC
LIVE STATUS
$98,400 frozen on Binance
Time is your enemy
Every hour matters. Act now.
Stolen cryptocurrency moves fast. The longer you wait, the more hops the funds make, the harder tracing becomes. Here is what your timeline looks like:
0–2h
Highest chance of recovery
Funds are still on the first hop. Exchanges can freeze immediately upon emergency request. This is the golden window.
2–24h
Funds splitting & moving
The thief is splitting funds across wallets and chains. Tracing is still straightforward, but the freeze window narrows with each hop.
24–72h
May reach mixers
Funds may be entering mixers, bridges, or privacy protocols. Recovery still possible through exchange deposits and advanced tracing.
72h+
Still possible
Recovery remains possible through legal channels, court orders, and long-term investigation. Many successes happen at this stage.
The faster you act, the higher the chance.
Contact us now for an emergency assessment. We respond within 2 hours, 24/7.
Our process is built for speed. Every step is designed to maximize the probability of recovering your stolen funds through a combination of blockchain forensics and legal action.
1
Emergency Assessment
We analyze the incident immediately: determine the attack type, collect transaction IDs and wallet addresses, assess fund movement, and identify the most promising recovery path.
Timeline: 0–2 hours
2
Blockchain Tracing
We trace fund movement across chains using professional-grade blockchain analytics tools. We build a complete transaction graph and identify exchange deposits.
Timeline: 2–48 hours
3
Exchange Freezing
We submit emergency freeze requests to exchange compliance departments. Swiss law firm requests carry significant weight — exchanges respond faster to professional legal counsel.
Timeline: 24–72 hours
4
Legal Action
We file police reports, obtain court orders (freezing orders, Norwich Pharmacal orders), and coordinate with authorities across multiple jurisdictions.
Timeline: 1–4 weeks
Types of crypto fraud
Seven ways crypto gets stolen. We handle all of them.
Each scam type requires a different investigation and recovery approach. Understanding what happened to you is the first step toward getting your funds back.
Fake platforms promising guaranteed returns. Funds deposited into fraudulent schemes that collapse or refuse withdrawals. Often promoted through social media or Telegram groups. Learn how we trace and recover →
Stolen credentials through fake login pages, impersonated support agents, or malicious links. Attacker gains access to your exchange account or wallet and drains funds immediately. See recovery options →
Project creators disappeared with investor liquidity. Token value drops to zero as the team drains the liquidity pool or treasury. Common in DeFi and new token launches. Pursue the developers →
Relationship-based manipulation where the scammer builds trust over weeks or months before convincing the victim to invest in a fake platform. Funds are sent willingly but under false pretenses. Full breakdown of the con → · Direct romance scams →
Phone number hijacked through social engineering of the mobile carrier. Attacker bypasses SMS-based 2FA, gains access to exchange accounts, and drains funds within minutes. Emergency response →
Malware, seed phrase compromise, or clipboard hijacking. Attacker gains direct access to your non-custodial wallet and transfers funds to their own addresses without your knowledge. Trace and freeze →
Fraudulent platform or broker that accepts deposits but never allows withdrawals. Or an OTC deal where the counterparty disappears after receiving your crypto or fiat payment. Recovery strategy →
Critical warning
Beware of "recovery services." Most are scams.
After losing crypto, victims are immediately targeted by fake recovery agents promising to get your money back. These are second scams. Here is how to tell us apart from them.
✓ A legitimate firm will
Be registered and verifiableSearch Zefix (CH), Companies House (UK), or your local bar association. Our registration: CHE-299.308.181.
Never guarantee outcomesAnyone who says "we will definitely recover your funds" is lying. We give honest probability assessments.
Have a physical office and real peopleYou can visit us in Basel. Our lawyers have LinkedIn profiles, bar memberships, and professional histories.
Charge for legal work, not "recovery fees"We charge a percentage of recovered funds — you pay nothing if we recover nothing.
✕ A scam "recovery service" will
Contact you firstDMs on Telegram, replies under crypto scam posts, "we saw your case and can help." Legitimate firms never cold-contact victims.
Ask for upfront payment"Pay $500 to start the recovery process." Then they ask for more. And more. The recovery never happens.
Ask for your credentialsSeed phrases, exchange logins, wallet passwords. They will drain whatever you have left.
Have no verifiable identityAnonymous Telegram handle, no company registration, no office, no professional credentials. Run.
Preserve your evidence
What to do RIGHT NOW before contacting us.
The actions you take in the first hours after discovering the theft can make or break your recovery case. Follow these steps immediately:
Screenshot everything — exchange messages, transaction history, chat logs, emails from the scammer
If scammer communicated via Telegram — SCREENSHOT IMMEDIATELY. They can delete the entire chat history at any time, and you will lose critical evidence.
Save all TX IDs and wallet addresses — every transaction hash and address you sent funds to
Do NOT communicate with the scammer further — anything you say may alert them to move funds faster
Do NOT send more funds — even if they claim it is needed to "release" your money. This is always a lie.
File a police report — we can help you with this, but starting the process early strengthens your case
Our capabilities
Professional-grade forensics. Global legal reach.
We combine institutional-grade blockchain analytics with cross-border legal infrastructure. This is what allows us to trace funds, freeze them on exchanges, and recover them through courts — anywhere in the world.
Chainalysis Reactor
Enterprise-grade transaction tracing across all major blockchains. Follow funds through mixers, bridges, and cross-chain swaps.
Elliptic Investigator
Comprehensive risk scoring and source-of-funds analysis. Identify exchange deposits and off-ramp points in real time.
Switzerland · FINMA
Home jurisdiction. Direct access to Swiss courts, MROS (Swiss FIU), and FINMA-regulated exchange compliance teams.
UK · High Court
Norwich Pharmacal orders, worldwide freezing injunctions, Bankers Trust orders. The most powerful disclosure and freezing tools in common law.
EU · AMLD6 Framework
Cross-border cooperation under the Anti-Money Laundering Directive. Coordinated legal action across EU member states.
Europol EC3 · Interpol
We coordinate with Europol's European Cybercrime Centre, national cyber police units, and the Egmont Group FIU network for cross-border cases.
Before joining Valken, Nils spent five years as an investigator at a European Financial Intelligence Unit — working the other side of these exact cases. He investigated cryptocurrency-related money laundering, coordinated exchange freezes, and managed asset seizures. Now he uses that same knowledge to recover stolen funds for victims. He has personally handled over 800 crypto cases across every major platform.
Former FIU investigator800+ cases handledChainalysis certified
Every case below is real and documented. Client details are anonymized per Swiss professional secrecy obligations.
Client D.M.
€180,000
€142,000 recovered in 6 weeks
Investment scam: client sent €180,000 to a fake trading platform that promised guaranteed returns. When withdrawal was refused, we traced the funds through 4 exchanges across 3 jurisdictions. Through a combination of emergency freeze requests and court orders (Norwich Pharmacal in UK, provisional measures in Switzerland), we recovered €142,000 — approximately 79% of the total loss. The remaining funds had already been cashed out before our involvement.
SIM swap attack: client's phone number was hijacked, 2FA bypassed, and $95,000 drained from their exchange account within minutes. We traced the stolen funds to two exchanges where the attacker had deposited them. Through emergency freeze requests submitted within 4 hours of the theft, combined with police cooperation and formal legal requests, we achieved full recovery of the $95,000 in just 3 weeks.
SIM Swap · Emergency Freeze · Police Cooperation
Client K.W.
$310,000
$248,000 recovered in 9 weeks
Romance scam (pig butchering): victim was manipulated over 4 months into sending a total of $310,000 to a fake investment platform. When the client contacted us, the funds had already been split across 12 wallets and moved through 3 chains. We traced every hop using Chainalysis, identified deposits on two major exchanges, obtained emergency freezes in Switzerland and the UK, and filed Norwich Pharmacal orders to identify the beneficial owners. Multi-jurisdictional recovery took 9 weeks — we recovered 80% of the stolen funds.
Your crypto was not stolen — it was frozen by the exchange. Different problem.
If your exchange locked your account due to AML flags, KYC failures, or compliance reviews — that is not fraud. It is a compliance dispute. Our crypto account unlock practice handles frozen exchange accounts across 21+ platforms with a 90%+ success rate.
21+ platformsBinance · Coinbase · Kraken · OKX & more
48h to 25 daysFrom frozen to free
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know. Before you decide.
Can stolen cryptocurrency actually be recovered?
Yes — contrary to popular belief, stolen crypto can often be recovered. The blockchain is a public ledger: every transaction is recorded and traceable. When stolen funds reach a regulated exchange (which they almost always do eventually — thieves need to cash out), those funds can be frozen through legal requests and court orders. Recovery rates depend heavily on how quickly you act after the theft, but we have achieved successful recoveries even in cases where weeks or months had passed. The key factors are: traceability of the funds, whether they reached a compliant exchange, and the legal tools available in the relevant jurisdiction.
How quickly should I act after crypto theft?
As fast as humanly possible. The first 2-24 hours are critical. During this window, stolen funds are typically still on the first few hops and have likely reached at least one exchange where they can be frozen. After 72 hours, funds may have passed through mixers, been converted to privacy coins, or been cashed out entirely. That said, even if days or weeks have passed, recovery is still possible — thieves often leave traces, and not all funds move at the same speed. Contact us regardless of timing; we will give you an honest assessment of your chances.
What information do you need to start a case?
At minimum, we need: the transaction ID(s) of the theft, the wallet address(es) funds were sent to, the approximate amount stolen, and a description of how the theft occurred. Additionally helpful: screenshots of communications with the scammer, the platform or website involved, any wallet addresses you can associate with the thief, and timestamps. The more information you provide, the faster we can begin tracing. If you are missing some of these, contact us anyway — we can often reconstruct the picture from partial information.
Can you trace crypto through mixers like Tornado Cash?
Mixers add complexity but do not make tracing impossible. Modern blockchain analytics tools can often correlate inputs and outputs of mixing services through timing analysis, amount matching, and behavioral patterns. Additionally, many mixers have been sanctioned (like Tornado Cash) or compromised, making their obfuscation less effective than users believe. Even when direct tracing through a mixer is not possible, we can often identify the funds on the other side through circumstantial evidence, exchange deposit patterns, and metadata analysis. Each case is different — we assess traceability during the initial evaluation.
How much does crypto fraud recovery cost?
We offer two models: a fixed fee for the investigation and legal work, or a success fee (percentage of recovered funds) where you pay only if we successfully recover your crypto. The initial assessment is always free. For the success fee model, the percentage depends on case complexity and amount involved — typically ranging from 10% to 30%. For fixed-fee work (tracing reports, court applications, exchange communications), fees are agreed in advance. We will never charge for work we do not believe has a reasonable chance of success.
What are the realistic chances of getting my crypto back?
It depends on the specific circumstances. Cases with the highest recovery rates share these characteristics: quick action (within 24-48 hours), funds traced to regulated exchanges, clear transaction trail, and cooperative jurisdictions. Cases with lower (but still possible) recovery rates involve: long delays before action, use of mixers or privacy coins, funds in uncooperative jurisdictions, or very small amounts that do not justify legal costs. During the free assessment, we give you an honest probability estimate — we do not take cases where we believe recovery is implausible just to collect fees.
Can you help if the scammer is in another country?
Yes — crypto fraud is inherently cross-border, and virtually all our cases involve multiple jurisdictions. Our approach focuses on where the funds are, not where the scammer is. If stolen crypto lands on an exchange in any regulated jurisdiction (EU, UK, US, Singapore, etc.), we can pursue legal remedies there regardless of the scammer's location. We work with local counsel in 14+ jurisdictions and leverage international cooperation mechanisms including Europol, mutual legal assistance treaties (MLATs), and cross-border court orders. The scammer's location matters less than where the money ended up.
What is a Norwich Pharmacal order and how does it help?
A Norwich Pharmacal order is a court order that compels a third party (like an exchange) to disclose information about a wrongdoer. In crypto fraud cases, we use these to force exchanges to reveal the identity behind accounts where stolen funds were deposited — including KYC documents, IP addresses, and linked accounts. This is one of the most powerful tools in our arsenal: it turns anonymous blockchain addresses into identified individuals who can be pursued civilly or criminally. These orders are available in the UK and have equivalents in many other jurisdictions.
How do I know if a crypto recovery service is legitimate?
Check these markers: (1) Registered law firm or licensed business — verifiable in commercial registers. (2) Bar association membership you can confirm independently. (3) Physical office with a real address. (4) No guaranteed recovery outcomes — anyone who promises 100% recovery is lying. (5) No demand for upfront "recovery fees" before any work begins. (6) Never asks for login credentials or private keys. (7) Professional website with verifiable team members. (8) Willing to provide an engagement letter and formal terms. Valken is registered as IvoAdvisory GmbH (CHE-299.308.181) in the Swiss commercial register.
Do I need to file a police report first?
You do not need to file a police report before contacting us — we can start the investigation and tracing immediately. However, a police report significantly strengthens the case, particularly for exchange cooperation (many exchanges require a police report reference before freezing accounts) and for court applications. We can help you file the report in the most effective way, ensuring it contains the right technical details and is directed to the correct unit (cybercrime division). In urgent cases, we begin work in parallel while the report is being prepared.
Can you help recover funds from DeFi protocols?
DeFi recovery is more complex than centralized exchange recovery, but it is possible in many cases. While DeFi protocols themselves are typically immutable smart contracts, the stolen funds usually need to reach a centralized exchange eventually for cash-out. We trace funds from the DeFi exploit to their eventual exchange destinations. Additionally, some DeFi protocols have governance mechanisms that can freeze or recover funds, and many exploit perpetrators have been identified through on-chain behavior analysis. For rug pulls, we pursue the identifiable team members through legal channels in their jurisdictions.
What if the exchange where stolen funds landed refuses to cooperate?
If an exchange refuses voluntary cooperation, we escalate through legal channels. This includes: (1) Formal legal requests citing the exchange's obligations under AML regulations. (2) Court orders compelling the exchange to freeze funds and disclose account holder information. (3) Regulatory complaints to the exchange's licensing authority (e.g., reporting to FINMA for Swiss-licensed exchanges, or FCA for UK-licensed ones). (4) Coordination with law enforcement who have their own powers to compel exchange cooperation. Most regulated exchanges cooperate once they receive a formal legal request from a law firm — outright refusal is rare and carries serious regulatory risk for the exchange.
Tell us what happened. Within hours, you will receive an honest assessment of your case — the likely recovery path, realistic chances, and recommended next steps. No obligation, no payment required for the assessment.
Reply within 2 hours for urgent casesFree assessment · no obligationSwiss professional secrecyGlobal jurisdiction
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