If your crypto sits on an exchange and you cannot sign in, the fix is almost never technical. The exchange holds the funds, the exchange controls the login, and only the exchange can restore access. A third party cannot reset your 2FA, change the email on your account, or release a withdrawal. That is not a limit of any one service. It is how custody works.
This guide covers what the official recovery routes look like, how long they take, and the situations that look like an exchange lockout but are really a wallet problem, which is where recovery work does apply.
What a recovery service cannot do for an exchange account
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- Bypass the exchange's identity check. Exchanges verify you against the ID you used at signup. Nobody outside the exchange can substitute for that.
- Reset your 2FA or email on your behalf. The reset has to be requested through the exchange's own flow, from you, with your documents.
- Unfreeze a restricted or closed account. Compliance holds are decided by the exchange.
Anyone who says they can do these things for a fee is either selling you something that does not exist or planning to take your login. The FTC's guidance on recovery scams is blunt: no legitimate company or agency will contact you offering to get your money back, and upfront fees for "recovery" are a red flag (FTC). Scammers also buy lists of people who have already lost money and approach them again (FTC). If a "support agent" finds you on social media after you posted about a lockout, treat it as a scam. The checklist is in how to tell a legitimate recovery service from a scam.
What the official routes look like
The details differ by exchange and change over time, so always start from the exchange's own help center, typed into your browser, never from a search ad or a message. Three examples of the pattern:
- Coinbase. If you lost email or 2-step verification access, you start from the sign-in recovery flow and verify your identity, for example by uploading ID. Coinbase says recovery usually takes about 48 hours but can take longer, and sends may be disabled during a security period after you regain access. It also says it cannot recover or replace lost security keys (Coinbase help).
- Kraken. If you set up a Master Key or saved a backup code, you can use it at the 2FA prompt. If not, the sign-in screen offers a "Recover account" option, or you can file a sign-in 2FA request on Kraken's support form and an agent follows up by email. A Master Key cannot be set up after you have already lost your sign-in 2FA (Kraken support).
- Binance.US. You choose the authenticator-issues option at the 2FA screen, confirm a code sent to your email, and complete identity confirmation with the ID used to verify the account. Review typically takes 48 to 72 hours, followed by a 48-hour withdrawal hold (Binance.US support).
The common thread: expect a document or selfie check, a wait measured in days, and a short period where withdrawals are limited. Those holds are a security feature, not a sign the request failed.
How to improve your odds with the exchange
- Use the official flow first, and only that. Every extra channel you open is another place for a scammer to find you.
- Submit the ID you signed up with. A mismatch between your name or document and the account is the usual reason a request stalls.
- Use the same device and network you normally use, if it is still available.
- Secure your email before anything else. If the lost phone was also signed in to your email, regain and lock down the email account first, then the exchange.
- Keep the case reference and reply only to messages that come from the exchange's real domain, in the existing ticket.
- Be patient and do not file duplicate requests, which can reset the review.
If the account holder has died, exchanges generally have their own process for heirs and need legal documents. The estate side is covered on the crypto estate recovery page.
When it is really a wallet problem
Many "exchange lockouts" turn out not to be exchange accounts at all. Check these before you spend weeks in a support queue:
- It is a wallet with a web login. Some services that look like exchanges are self-custody wallets: the keys are yours, held in an encrypted backup or a seed phrase, and the company cannot reset anything. If you are stuck on a Blockchain.com login, that is a wallet recovery case, not an account reset.
- You withdrew to your own wallet years ago and forgot. Search old email for withdrawal confirmations, and check old drives for wallet files. The deleted wallet file guide covers the hunt.
- You have the wallet but forgot its password. That is a forgotten password job, and the file or seed is what gets worked on.
- You have a seed phrase with a word wrong or missing. See seed phrase recovery.
- The exchange no longer exists. The funds are a claim against the estate, not a wallet. A recovery service cannot reach them, but the bankruptcy or repayment administrator can.
If your coins were taken from the account rather than locked inside it, that is a theft case with different steps, in my Bitcoin was stolen. Funds already sent out by a scammer's transfer should not be assumed recoverable.
What to send if you want an assessment
Describe the situation without credentials: which service it is, how you bought the crypto, whether you ever withdrew to your own address, and which backups you still have (wallet file, seed phrase, exported keys, old computer). Never send an exchange password, a 2FA code or a seed phrase to anyone who contacts you first. If it turns out to be an exchange account, I will tell you that and point you back to the exchange's own recovery route rather than take your money for something that cannot be done.
Assessment is free, pricing is published, and there is no fee until your crypto is back.