Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, in many cases. Cryptocurrency transactions are permanently recorded on the blockchain, which means the money you lost left a public, traceable trail. Whether recovery is realistic depends on where the funds ended up: if they reached a regulated exchange (the off-ramp), exchange compliance teams or law enforcement can often freeze them. If the funds passed through a mixer like Tornado Cash, recovery becomes harder but is sometimes still possible at downstream reorg points. We tell you honestly which category your case falls into.

The case evaluation is completely free. You send us your wallet, the transactions, and what happened. We respond within 24 hours with an honest read on whether recovery is realistic. If we move forward with a forensic engagement, we send a written scope describing deliverables and fees before any work begins. We never charge upfront “release”, “tax unlock”, or “liquidity” fees — those are scam patterns, not legitimate recovery practice.

This is one of the biggest misconceptions in crypto recovery. The website going offline does not mean the money is gone. The on-chain trail is permanent — the wallets, the transactions, the bridges and exchange deposit addresses where the funds eventually landed are all still readable. CryptoAndCode regularly produces forensic briefs on operators whose websites have been seized or abandoned. The trail follows the wallets, not the URL.

The forensic trace itself typically takes 5 to 15 business days, depending on case complexity. After that, the timeline depends on the parties we file with: exchange-compliance freezes can happen in days when caught early, while regulatory investigations can take months. Mixer obfuscation typically completes within 24 to 72 hours of the initial theft, so engaging early matters a lot.

Most “recovery agents” that proactively contact crypto-loss victims are themselves scams. The pattern is: they ask for upfront unlock fees, request remote desktop access, or ask for your seed phrase. We do none of those things. Our case evaluation is free. We never ask for remote access or seed phrases. We engage exchange compliance and regulators, not the alleged scammer. We do not hold or transfer your funds. Our office address (5060 California Ave, Bakersfield, CA) and direct email (support@cryptoandcode.com) are public.

Send us as much of the following as you have: (1) the wallet address you used to deposit or interact with the platform, (2) any transaction hashes, (3) approximate amount and date of the loss, (4) the platform / contract / domain name involved, (5) any communications you saved (emails, chat exports, screenshots). If you only have some of these, send what you have — we can usually start the trace from the wallet address alone.