Can Stolen Cryptocurrency Be Recovered?

What "recovered" means here

In ordinary speech, recovered means the assets, or their value, come back to the person or organisation that lost them. A trace, a written report, an exchange ticket, and a court filing are steps that sometimes come before that. They are not the same event. BNG SOFTWARE's work is the technical review of the blockchain records and the written findings that follow. Exchanges, custodians, lawyers, and authorities take their own decisions after that.

How do you tell whether a recovery effort is even rational?

The first useful output is a view of the records, not a promise. A feasibility look asks three questions. Is there a recorded path from the loss? Does that path reach a destination that someone else might be able to act on? Are the gaps so wide that more tracing would mostly add speculation? BNG SOFTWARE answers those questions from the hashes and addresses you can share. A seed phrase is not required, and if the visible path already ends in a place with no practical next step, the honest result is to say so.

If value appears to sit at a known service, or the path is still readable, a fuller review may be worth scoping. Either conclusion is a legitimate outcome of the assessment.

Do not send a seed phrase, a private key, or a password.

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When a later return is more plausible

None of the following points produces a return by itself. Together they describe the situations where a technical review sometimes finds a live next step.

• The relevant transfers are on a public ledger and the hashes are still available.
• The path reaches a custodial service that can be asked to review a report.
• The path has not yet been broken into many ambiguous hops. Later transfers can make a trail harder to interpret, which is why the records matter more than any general rule about days.
• The client can share records lawfully, without handing over a seed phrase or private key.

When the records often stop short

• Value moved through a mixer or a privacy feature, and the onward link is unresolved.
• The path ends at a self-hosted wallet that does not spend during the period reviewed.
• The activity went off the public ledger, for example through internal transfers inside a service that the chain does not show.
• The only balance the client can see is a number on a website, with no matching on-chain transfer.

Mixers and exchanges raise their own questions. See Can Cryptocurrency Be Traced Through Mixers? and Can Stolen Crypto Be Traced to an Exchange?

Can the technical work start before you instruct a lawyer?

Many people want one firm to follow the transactions before they choose a lawyer. That technical path can start at BNG SOFTWARE from the transaction records. If a later step needs a court application, an authority, or legal advice, that step belongs to an independent lawyer under a separate agreement. BNG SOFTWARE does not provide legal advice or legal representation. Where appropriate, the company may help clients identify independent legal professionals or law firms for separate engagement. Any legal services are provided independently under a separate agreement between the client and the legal professional. You can also bring a lawyer in from the start. Both arrangements are scoped in writing. The division of roles is set out in Do I Need a Lawyer to Recover Stolen Cryptocurrency? and the sequence of the work in How Does Cryptocurrency Recovery Work?

If you only want to understand the path

Some readers are not asking anyone to pursue the assets. They want a clear account of where the funds went, with observed transfers separated from hypotheses. That is a complete reason to commission a review, and you can stop when you have it. See Where Does Stolen Cryptocurrency Go?

For funds and companies

A fund that lost assets, or that suffered a hack, usually has a further duty to its own investors and advisers. The same tracing question applies, often across more wallets and networks. The output is a record of what the evidence supports, which management can share with its own counsel. The report does not replace the organisation's own legal, audit, or compliance work. The document itself is described in What Is a Blockchain Forensic Investigation Report?

What we will and will not say after a review

A written review will say which transactions were examined, which links are verified or supported by the protocol's own records, which are only candidates, and which questions stay open.

It will not contain a guarantee of recovery, a named private individual presented as a promised result, or a claim that an exchange must freeze funds. Companies that lead with those claims are covered in How to Avoid Fake Cryptocurrency Recovery Companies.

A note on fees

For a qualifying recovery investigation, the forensic report fee can be payable only if the recovery condition in the signed agreement is met. The indicative success fee is around 12% of the qualifying recovered amount, with eligibility defined in that agreement. Many first questions are a narrower review, and that narrower scope is priced in writing before work begins. The full fee structure is on How Much Does a Cryptocurrency Investigation Cost?

Frequently asked questions

Further reading

• Where Does Stolen Cryptocurrency Go?
• How Does Cryptocurrency Recovery Work?
• How Much Does a Cryptocurrency Investigation Cost?
• How to Avoid Fake Cryptocurrency Recovery Companies