Digital-asset disputes and asset recovery are won or lost in the first hours. When crypto is misappropriated, OBOLUS moves on two tracks at once: a court application to freeze and trace the assets, and an operational push to have the funds frozen at the exchange or stablecoin issuer before they are layered away. We act for businesses, funds, exchanges and founders — not retail scam victims — and we price the work up front: a retainer from $15,000 plus a success fee of 15–30% on what is recovered.
What the law says now
The English courts remain the leading forum for crypto recovery, and the toolkit is now well established. In AA v Persons Unknown [2019] the court treated crypto-assets as property capable of being the subject of a proprietary injunction; Osbourne v Persons Unknown [2022] extended the same logic to NFTs. Claimants can obtain worldwide freezing orders, proprietary injunctions, and disclosure through Norwich Pharmacal and Bankers Trust orders against the exchanges and intermediaries that hold the trail.
The position was reinforced by the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on 2 December 2025 and confirms that a digital asset can be a "third category" of personal property under the law of England and Wales. That statutory footing matters: it removes the argument that crypto is not property at all, and it strengthens proprietary and tracing claims that underpin recovery.
Other forums have followed. In the UAE, the DIFC Courts granted worldwide freezing relief in Techteryx v Aria Commodities DMCC [2025] DIFC DEC 001, and confirmed in Trafigura v Gupta [2025] DIFC CA 001 that they will support foreign proceedings with a freezing order. Hong Kong has issued its first "tokenised" injunction (HCA 2417/2024) and treats crypto as property following Re Gatecoin [2023] HKCFI 914; Singapore granted a proprietary injunction in CLM v CLN [2022] SGHC 46. Choosing among them is a strategic decision, not a default — we set it out on our forum guides and in the Jurisdiction Navigator.
How it works in practice
Recovery is a sequence, and each step has a deadline. We run it in a defined order.
- Trace. On-chain forensics map where the assets went, through mixers and across chains, and identify the off-ramp — usually a centralised exchange or a stablecoin held at an issuer. We work with established forensics providers, including Chainalysis, TRM Labs and Elliptic.
- Freeze operationally. Where funds sit in a freezable stablecoin, the issuer can blacklist the address. Tether and Circle both hold contract-level freeze authority; Circle typically acts on a court order or OFAC designation. A credible request needs a law-enforcement case number, the transaction hashes, and a professional forensic report — and the window is measured in hours.
- Freeze legally. In parallel we apply for a worldwide freezing order and, where needed, proprietary and disclosure orders against the intermediaries holding the assets or the KYC records.
- Disclose. Norwich Pharmacal and Bankers Trust orders compel exchanges to reveal account holders and movement, turning "persons unknown" into named defendants.
- Enforce. Once assets are secured, we convert the freeze into recovery — by judgment, settlement, or insolvency process — and enforce across borders.
The scale of the freeze infrastructure is real. On the issuer side, Tether has reported cumulative frozen assets of more than USD 4.4bn, supporting 2,300+ cases with 340+ agencies across 65 countries; Circle has reported roughly USD 109m frozen across about 370 addresses. Those channels only work if the request is precise and fast — which is why tracing and the legal application run together, not one after the other.
Risks and forks
Most failed recoveries fail for avoidable reasons.
- Delay. Every hour lets the counterparty layer funds through more hops. If you wait days to instruct counsel, the freezable window may close.
- Wrong forum. A freezing order in a court the exchange will not respect achieves little. The forum has to match where the assets and the intermediaries actually are.
- Weak evidence. Issuers and exchanges act on professional forensic reports and case numbers, not screenshots. A thin evidence pack stalls the request.
- Over-promising. Not every loss is recoverable. Where assets have been cashed out through a non-cooperative venue, we say so plainly rather than run up costs on a claim that cannot land.
OBOLUS is a member of the recovery ecosystem that grew out of CFAAR, the Crypto Fraud and Asset Recovery network launched in London in September 2021, and we coordinate with forensic and law-enforcement contacts as a matter of routine. For the channel mechanics, see our breakdown of how a stablecoin freeze works.
Choosing the right forum
The forum decision is the single most important strategic call in a recovery, and it is rarely "wherever the claimant happens to be". We choose the court or tribunal by reference to where the assets, the off-ramp and the KYC records actually sit, how quickly emergency relief can be obtained, and whether the resulting order will be respected by the intermediary that has to act on it.
- England & Wales remains the deepest forum, with worldwide freezing orders, proprietary and tracing claims, and well-developed disclosure relief against intermediaries. The Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 has reinforced the proprietary foundation.
- The DIFC Courts are increasingly used where assets or parties have a Gulf nexus; they have granted worldwide freezing relief and will support foreign proceedings, as in Techteryx and Trafigura.
- Hong Kong and Singapore are strong where the exchange or counterparty is in Asia, both treating crypto as property and granting proprietary injunctions.
- Arbitration — through bodies such as the LCIA, SIAC or HKIAC — can offer speed and confidentiality where a contractual relationship exists, with emergency-arbitrator relief available.
Often the answer is more than one forum running in coordination: an issuer freeze in one place, a disclosure order in another, enforcement in a third. We set this out in the forum guides and weigh the trade-offs against capital, timeline and reputation in the Jurisdiction Navigator.
Evidence and quantifying the loss
Recovery applications stand or fall on the evidence pack. Courts and issuers expect a coherent, professionally prepared record rather than a narrative. A credible pack typically includes the full transaction history with hashes, a forensic tracing report from an established provider, the relevant KYC and account records where available, and a clear quantification of the loss expressed in both the original asset and a fiat equivalent at defined dates.
Quantification matters more than people expect. Volatile assets move in value between theft, freeze and recovery, and the measure of loss affects both the relief sought and any later damages claim. We build the quantification into the application from the outset so that the number is defensible if it is later challenged, rather than reconstructed under pressure.
What to do in the first 24 hours
If you have just discovered a theft or a counterparty default:
- Preserve everything — transaction hashes, wallet addresses, communications and KYC records.
- Do not tip off the counterparty or attempt self-help that could prejudice a later application.
- Instruct counsel and forensics together, so tracing and the freezing application start in parallel.
- Identify the off-ramp early; that determines whether an issuer freeze or an exchange order is the faster route.
Recovery rarely stands alone. It usually sits alongside licensing and compliance work for the same business, and the structure you put in place beforehand affects how defensible your position is later.
FAQ
Do you work with retail scam victims?
No. OBOLUS acts for businesses, funds, exchanges, custodians and founders. Our recovery work is built for commercial losses, not retail consumer-recovery cases.
How fast do we need to act?
Immediately. The operational freeze window at an exchange or stablecoin issuer is measured in hours, and the value of a tracing exercise falls the longer funds move. We can start tracing and a freezing application on the same day.
What does recovery cost?
We work on a retainer from $15,000 plus a success fee of 15–30% on amounts recovered, scoped in the engagement letter. Government and court fees are passed through at cost.
Can you guarantee recovery?
No, and we never will. We can set out whether recovery is viable, the route we would take and the cost — and we will tell you plainly if a claim is not worth running.
Which court should a claim be brought in?
It depends on where the assets and intermediaries sit. England & Wales, the DIFC, Hong Kong and Singapore all offer strong relief; we select the forum to fit the facts rather than defaulting to one.
If digital assets have been misappropriated, or a counterparty has defaulted, tell us what happened and we will map your options — including whether a freeze is still achievable. The first call is free and under NDA.