What does a crypto recovery service actually do?
A legitimate crypto recovery service restores access to a self-custody wallet you own — a forgotten password, a partially lost seed phrase, a damaged wallet file, or an old format no modern software opens. KeychainX, a Swiss wallet recovery company, has recovered more than 1,000 wallets since 2017 at a success rate of about 79%, working on Bitcoin Core, Blockchain.com, Electrum, MetaMask, Trezor, MultiBit, and 2014 Ethereum presale wallets. What no honest service can do is reverse a blockchain transaction: stolen or scammed coins cannot be “recovered” by anyone, and any company promising that is itself a scam.
What do crypto recovery services cost?
KeychainX charges 20% of the recovered value, payable only if the wallet is opened. The case assessment is free and there is no minimum fee and no upfront payment. The fee is deducted from the recovered funds, so you never send money in advance. Advance payment is the single clearest scam signal in this industry: fraudulent “recovery agents” collect an upfront fee, invent progress reports, then ask for more. If any service asks you to pay before results — by wire, crypto, or gift card — walk away.
How can I tell a legitimate recovery service from a scam?
Check three things before sending anyone a wallet file. Registration: a real company publishes a verifiable registry number — KeychainX’s Swiss UID CHE-420.310.730 can be checked in seconds at zefix.ch, the official Swiss commercial register. Contact direction: legitimate services never contact you first; anyone who DMs you on Telegram, X, or Facebook offering recovery is a scammer, including anyone claiming to be KeychainX. Payment: success fee only, never upfront.
What can be recovered — and what can’t?
Recoverable: forgotten wallet passwords (including passwords you are certain are correct but which no longer decrypt — often a text-encoding problem KeychainX documented in its own presale research), partial seed phrases with some words missing, corrupted or old-format wallet files, wallets on dead drives or phones, and 2014 Ethereum presale wallets. Not recoverable: coins sent to a scammer or wrong address (transactions are irreversible), exchange account lockouts (only the exchange holds those keys), and wallets with nothing to work from — no file, no partial memory, no device. KeychainX tells you which side your case falls on at the free assessment stage, before any agreement is signed.
What to prepare before you make contact
The quality of the assessment you get back depends almost entirely on what you can describe at the start. Before making contact, gather four things.
The wallet file, located. Find it and know where it is — wallet.dat for Bitcoin Core, a UTC/V3 keystore JSON for Geth or Mist, the vault data for MetaMask, a .wallet or .key for older clients. What is needed depends on the case, and the assessment will tell you exactly what to send and when.
Everything you remember about the password. Length, whether it was a phrase or a single word, the language you were thinking in, whether it contained numbers or symbols and roughly where, which of your habitual passwords it resembled, and whether you typed it on a phone or a keyboard. Partial memory is the raw material the search is built from; a case with good hints and a case with none are entirely different jobs.
The circumstances. Roughly when the wallet was created, which software and version, which operating system, and when you last opened it successfully. Wallet formats changed repeatedly between 2011 and 2016, and the era determines the method.
Proof the wallet is yours. A public address, an old transaction, an exchange withdrawal record, or the device it lived on. No legitimate service should work on a wallet whose ownership cannot be demonstrated.
What a real engagement looks like
A legitimate recovery runs in the same sequence every time, and knowing the sequence makes deviation easy to spot.
- Free assessment. You describe the case; we tell you honestly whether it is workable and roughly how hard. This comes back within 24 hours and includes “this is not recoverable” when that is the answer.
- Meet us, if you want to. A video call at no cost, worldwide — or, by appointment, an in-person meeting at MME’s Zurich offices. You should be able to see who you are dealing with before anything is signed.
- Written agreement. Terms in writing before any file changes hands: the fee, what happens on failure, and how your data is handled. The client agreement was drafted by MME, our Swiss legal counsel since 2020.
- The work. The search runs offline on in-house hardware.
- Recovery and fee. On success the 20% fee is deducted from the recovered funds. You never send money in advance at any point in this sequence.
What happens if the wallet cannot be opened?
You pay nothing. That is what “success-based” means, and it is the reason we turn cases away at the assessment stage rather than accepting everything — an unwinnable case costs us compute and earns nothing.
Failure is a real outcome. Our success rate is about 79% across more than 1,000 recoveries since 2017, which means roughly one case in five does not open. A provider quoting a success rate near 100%, or declining to give one at all, is describing a sales process rather than an engineering one.
Why KeychainX
Verifiable Swiss company — KEYCHAINX AG, Baar, Canton of Zug. Legal counsel since 2020: MME (Zurich), who prepare the client agreement you sign before any work starts.
Track record — recovering wallets since 2017; 1,000+ recovered; ~79% success rate; covered by Fortune, Cointelegraph, Bitcoin.com and CryptoSlate; original vulnerability research published at keychainx.io/reference.
Meet us before you commit — free video call worldwide, or an in-person meeting by appointment at MME’s Zurich offices.
Nothing upfront — free assessment, 20% only on success.
Start with a free assessment: Contact KeychainX · FAQ · Supported wallets
Are crypto recovery services legitimate?
Some are, many are not. Legitimate services — like KeychainX, a registered Swiss AG — publish a verifiable company registration, charge only on success, and never contact you first. The majority of “recovery” offers found in social media replies and DMs are advance-fee scams.
Can a recovery service get back stolen crypto?
No. Blockchain transactions cannot be reversed by anyone. Services claiming to recover scammed or stolen coins are scams. Recovery services restore access to wallets you still own — forgotten passwords, lost seed words, damaged files.
How much does KeychainX charge?
20% of the recovered value, only on success. Assessment is free, and there is no upfront payment of any kind.
What do I need to have before contacting you?
The wallet file located, everything you can remember about the password, the wallet’s software and rough era, and something proving the wallet is yours — an address, an old transaction, or the device. The free assessment tells you exactly what to send and when.
What happens if you cannot open my wallet?
You pay nothing. The fee is charged only on successful recovery, and there is no upfront payment or minimum. About one case in five does not open — our success rate is roughly 79%.
Can I meet you before I commit to anything?
We usually don’t meet with clients. 99% of contacts are through mail. If you want to meet us we are travelling to most conferences like Bitcoin Asia, Bitcoin Amsterdam or Bitcoin Nashville. We are frequently exhibiting a those conferences and you can talk to us live.
An in-person meetings can be arranged by appointment at the Zurich offices of MME, our legal counsel since 2020. This is after we do a KYC and you provide us with more information about your wallet.
Is there a written agreement?
Yes. A client agreement drafted by MME is signed before any wallet file is transferred. It sets out the fee, what happens if recovery fails, and how your data is handled.
How long does wallet recovery take?
Simple password cases can resolve in days; complex cases (partial seeds, presale encoding issues, damaged media) can take weeks to months. You get an honest estimate — including “unrecoverable” — at the free assessment.