Crypto exchange froze my funds: account freezes, locks and withdrawal blocks

A frozen exchange account almost never means your funds are gone. In most cases it is a review you can pass — provided you answer correctly and in the right order. Mistakes made in the first few days (partial answers, opening a second account, hiring a "recovery agent") extend the review far more than whatever triggered it.

Start with the diagnostic — it identifies the scenario and gives you a plan. If you already know the platform and the type of block, go straight to the relevant walkthrough.

Whatever the platform calls it — “risk control”, “restricted account”, “compliance hold” — the mechanics underneath are the same: every centralized exchange (CEX) is a regulated virtual asset service provider (VASP) bound by AML rules, and every freeze is either a compliance review the platform runs itself or an external instruction it cannot discuss. The first legal question is always which of the two you are facing, because the escalation path, the timeline and even who is allowed to answer you differ completely. The jurisdiction of the operating entity that actually serves your account matters just as much — the same brand can behave very differently under different regulators. Self-custody wallets and decentralized exchanges (DEX) sit outside this framework; the pages below cover custodial platforms, where the operator controls the funds.

Every platform brands its freeze differently — Binance’s ‘risk control’, Coinbase’s ‘restricted account’, Kraken’s ‘compliance hold’ — but underneath, it’s almost always the same four or five triggers governed by the same AML obligations. Knowing which trigger you’re actually dealing with, not just what the banner in the app says, is what determines whether this takes two weeks or two months.

Mark Eichorn · Managing Partner