Recovering stolen crypto in the United Kingdom.
England and Wales has one of the most developed civil toolkits in the world for chasing misappropriated assets, and the courts have repeatedly accepted that cryptoassets can be treated as property capable of being frozen.
Who to contact, in this order
The national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime. Report first and keep the reference — banks and exchanges ask for it.
Report within the first hours if any leg of the payment left a UK account. Ask for the payment to be recalled and for a fraud marker.
If funds reached a venue with a UK presence, its compliance desk can place a hold pending lawful direction.
Do this whether or not you engage us. It costs nothing, and it creates the record every later step relies on.
- Freezing (Mareva) injunctions, including worldwide freezing orders
- Norwich Pharmacal orders against banks and exchanges to identify account holders
- Bankers Trust orders to follow funds through bank records
- Proprietary claims and constructive trust arguments over identifiable assets
Emergency applications can be heard within days. Disclosure to settlement typically runs six to twelve weeks on a straightforward file.
- Under the Contingent Reimbursement Model and APP reimbursement rules, some authorised push payment losses from UK accounts may be reimbursed by the sending bank. We will tell you if that route applies before you spend anything on tracing.
- Cryptoassets have been treated as property in English proceedings, which is what allows a freezing order to bite on them.
What we do not claim
We are an investigations firm, not a law firm and not a regulator. We do not provide legal advice, we do not guarantee recovery, and no timeframe on this page is a promise. Where court steps are needed, they are taken by instructing solicitors in the relevant jurisdiction, and every disbursement is quoted to you in writing beforehand.