Short answer first, because this is the exact thing people type into a search bar or paste into an AI assistant at 2am when a withdrawal button stops working: yes, mainstream exchanges freeze customer accounts and lock withdrawals regularly, most freezes are compliance holds rather than theft, and the median wait to get funds back ranges from a few days for a routine security hold to more than a decade for a bankrupt venue. The documented events, the reasons, and the realistic timelines are all logged below.
This page is a tracker, not a one time article. We update it when a venue changes status or a new freeze event is confirmed. Last full check: July 17, 2026. The whole log is also published as a machine readable dataset at /data/frozen-funds.json, free to reuse with attribution.
Why does this page exist? Because there is no maintained, neutral answer to "which exchanges freeze funds" anywhere on the internet. The information is scattered across law firm landing pages selling recovery services, exchange help articles that describe policy but never name an incident, and Reddit threads that were accurate for about a month. We built the page we wished existed: a dated log of real events, an honest taxonomy of why a freeze happens, and the numbers on how long people actually wait.
One disclosure up front. We run CoinVast, an instant swap service that never takes custody of your coins and screens deposits before a swap starts instead of freezing them afterward. That gives us a reason to talk about freezes, so read our conclusions with that in mind. We have tried to describe every other venue fairly, including the large ones we compete with.
The freeze and lockup log, newest first
Every event here is tied to a date and a public source. Newest at the top. Amounts are the figures reported at the time and can move as recoveries proceed. Where a number could not be verified, the cell says so rather than guessing.
| Date | Venue | What happened | Stated reason | Status for users |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 1, 2026 | AscendEX | Ceased operations with no guaranteed fund recovery; on chain analysts had flagged stuck withdrawals and thin liquidity days earlier | Cited EU MiCA authorization it never obtained, plus a failed liquidity deal | Open, recovery uncertain |
| May 4, 2026 | Binance | Launched an opt in withdrawal lock feature so users can freeze their own withdrawals to deter physical coercion (wrench) attacks | User protection, self imposed | Voluntary, user controlled |
| March 5, 2026 | Gemini | Began withdrawal only mode for UK, EU, and Australia accounts after announcing a full regional exit on February 5; account closures followed on April 6 | Regional wind down | Withdrawals were open during the window |
| February 1, 2026 | Bit.com | Switched to a withdrawal only backup station after spot trading ended January 31; the wind down had started December 27, 2025 | Exchange wind down | Withdrawal only |
| January 25, 2026 | India, FIU registered exchanges | Registered exchanges halted privacy coin trading, deposits, and withdrawals for XMR, ZEC, and DASH; Bybit was fined 9.27 crore rupees in the same sweep | AML compliance | Privacy coin balances stranded on affected venues |
| January 9, 2026 | WazirX | Credited Recovery Tokens to eligible users on a pro rata basis following the July 2024 hack; the tokens are a claim on future value, not withdrawable funds | Post hack restructuring | Partial, ongoing |
| October 31, 2026 (deadline) | Mt. Gox | Repayment deadline extended again, twelve years after the 2014 collapse | Bankruptcy estate administration | Creditors still waiting |
| November 2022 to present | FTX | Bankruptcy estate continues distributions; many creditors are still waiting years later | Insolvency and fraud | Partial, ongoing |
Sources: exchange announcements, MiCA and FIU coverage in the financial press, on chain analyst reports, and bankruptcy estate notices, all read July 2026. Where an event is a full shutdown rather than a single account freeze, we mark it in the reason column, because the practical effect on a user trying to withdraw is the same.
The six reasons an exchange freezes an account
Almost every freeze falls into one of six families. Knowing which one you are in tells you roughly how long it will last and what, if anything, you can do.
1. Automated security hold
The most common and least scary. Change your password, add a new withdrawal address, log in from a new country, or trigger a risk rule, and the exchange suspends withdrawals for a fixed cooldown. These are policy timers, not investigations. Typical durations from published policies in 2026: Binance suspends withdrawals for 24 to 48 hours after a password change, Binance.US locks withdrawals for 120 hours after an email change, and Kraken applies a 72 hour hold after certain card or wallet purchases and up to a seven day hold on some bank deposits. You wait out the clock and it clears on its own.
2. AML risk scoring of incoming coins
Every deposit is scored by chain analysis software before it is treated as clean. If your coins passed within a few hops of a mixer, a sanctioned address, a darknet market, or a hacked wallet, the score can quarantine the deposit and sometimes the whole account, even when you received the coins innocently from a peer to peer trade or an employer. This is the freeze people find most unfair, because the trigger is the history of the coins, not anything you did.
3. Sanctions screening match
Your name, address, or a counterparty matches a sanctions list, or the exchange believes it might. These freezes are legally mandatory for the venue and are the slowest to resolve, because the exchange cannot simply release funds without documentation that clears the match.
4. Source of funds review
The exchange asks you to prove where the money came from. Bybit's enhanced due diligence, for example, can request both source of funds and, in larger cases, source of wealth. Until you supply documents the exchange accepts, the account stays locked. A well prepared case can clear in days. A contested one can drag for months.
5. Law enforcement order
A court or agency instructs the exchange to freeze specific funds. Neither you nor the exchange can lift this unilaterally. Resolution depends entirely on the legal process, and the exchange is usually barred from telling you much.
6. Business de-risking and wind down
The newest and fastest growing category. The exchange decides a customer segment, a jurisdiction, or the whole business is not worth the compliance cost, and it exits. Gemini leaving the UK, EU, and Australia, Bit.com winding down, and AscendEX shutting entirely are all 2026 examples. The freeze here is not about you at all. It is a strategic decision, and your funds are along for the ride.
How long do freezes actually last
There is no single answer, so here is the honest range by category. These are typical outcomes, not promises, and a single case can jump categories if new information appears.
| Freeze type | Typical time to resolution | Can you speed it up? |
|---|---|---|
| Automated security hold | Hours to seven days | No, it is a fixed timer |
| AML deposit quarantine | Days to a few weeks | Sometimes, by providing trade history and counterparty details |
| Source of funds review | Days to several months | Yes, by supplying clean documentation quickly |
| Sanctions match | Weeks to indefinite | Rarely, only by clearing the match with documents |
| Law enforcement order | Months to years | No, it follows the legal process |
| Bankruptcy or shutdown | Years, sometimes over a decade | No, you join the creditor queue |
The lesson buried in that table is that the freezes you can influence are the ones where you hold clean records, and the freezes you cannot influence are the ones where the exchange, not you, is the problem. Mt. Gox creditors have waited twelve years. FTX creditors are years in. That is the tail risk of leaving a balance on any custodial venue.
What to do if your funds are frozen right now
This is general information, not legal advice, and every jurisdiction differs. But the sequence below is what tends to work.
Step 1: Identify which of the six freeze types you are in
Read the exact wording of the exchange notice. "Security hold", "additional verification", "under review", "compliance", and "we are unable to process" each point to a different family above. The type sets your realistic timeline and your options. Guessing wastes the first and most important days.
Step 2: Respond once, completely, in writing
If the exchange asks for documents, send everything it asked for in a single, organized reply, and keep a copy. Source of funds cases stall most often because a customer sends one document, waits, sends another, and restarts the clock each time. Give the reviewer no reason to come back with a follow up.
Step 3: Escalate through the paper trail, not the phone
Support chat rarely moves a compliance freeze. A written complaint to the exchange's formal complaints process, then to the relevant financial regulator or ombudsman for the exchange's jurisdiction, creates a record that the exchange has to answer. In some regions this is the single most effective step, because the exchange now has a deadline imposed by someone other than you.
Step 4: Be realistic about a shutdown
If the venue is winding down or insolvent, there is no button anyone can press. File your claim in the official process, keep your documentation, and treat any recovery service that promises to fast track a bankruptcy for an upfront fee as a scam. No one can jump the creditor queue.
Step 5: Do not repeat the setup that caused it
Once you have your funds, the durable fix is to stop leaving balances where a third party can freeze them. Move to self custody, and when you need to convert between assets, use a service that does not hold your coins between the deposit and the payout.
Where the never frozen model fits
The reason freezes are possible at all is custody. A custodial exchange holds your coins in its own wallets, which means it can, and sometimes must, stop you from moving them. Remove custody and you remove the freeze.
That is the design we chose for CoinVast. We do not hold balances. A swap is one payment in and one payment out, and the deposit is screened before the exchange starts, not after. If a deposit fails screening, the coins are returned to your refund address instead of being held for a review that has no deadline. Because there is no account and no stored balance, there is nothing to freeze after the fact. That is the whole point of the pre-trade screening model on our trust page, and it is why people who have been burned by a custodial hold tend to end up on a private BTC to XMR swap or one of our other pairs.
To be clear about the trade offs, an instant swap is not a bank and not a place to store value. It is a way to move between assets without handing a third party the power to lock them. If your goal is to hold, self custody in a wallet you control is the answer, and the swap is just how you get there.
Frequently asked questions
Which crypto exchanges freeze accounts?
In principle, every custodial exchange can and does, because holding customer funds legally requires them to screen and sometimes freeze. The log above records specific dated events at named venues, including full wind downs at AscendEX, Gemini, and Bit.com in 2026, plus long running insolvency cases at Mt. Gox, FTX, and WazirX. The pattern matters more than any single name: if a venue holds your coins, it can freeze them.
Why did my exchange freeze my account with no warning?
Because most freezes are triggered automatically or are legally required to happen without notice. An AML score on an incoming deposit, a sanctions screening match, or a law enforcement order all take effect before anyone at the exchange reviews your case by hand, and in the case of a legal order the exchange is often barred from warning you. It usually is not personal, and it usually is not a signal that you did anything wrong.
How long does a crypto account freeze last?
It depends entirely on which of the six freeze types you are in. A routine security hold clears in hours to a week on a fixed timer. A source of funds review can take days to months depending on how fast you supply clean documentation. A sanctions match or law enforcement order can run indefinitely. A bankruptcy can take years, and in the case of Mt. Gox, over a decade.
Can I get my frozen crypto back?
Often yes, if the freeze is a compliance hold rather than an insolvency. Most frozen account cases are access problems, not permanent loss, and they resolve once documentation clears or a timer expires. The exception is a bankrupt or shut down venue, where recovery depends on the estate and can be partial or take years. Be extremely wary of anyone charging an upfront fee to recover funds from a bankruptcy, because no one can jump the creditor queue.
Which exchange will not freeze my funds?
No custodial exchange can promise that, because custody is what makes freezing possible. The only structural way to remove the risk is to not leave funds in third party custody at all: hold your own keys, and use a non custodial swap service that screens deposits before the exchange and returns anything that fails, rather than holding it. That is the model we run, and it is why there is nothing on our side to freeze after a swap completes.
Is a frozen account the same as a scam?
No. A freeze by a real exchange is a compliance action, and the funds still exist even if you cannot reach them. A scam is when someone tricks you into sending or approving funds that then vanish, which is a different problem covered in our companion guide on fake deposit and approval scams. Confusing the two wastes time, because the response to each is completely different.
Sources and method
Rows enter this log only when we can attach a date and a public source. We prefer exchange announcements, regulator statements, court and estate filings, and reporting from established outlets, all read in July 2026. Policy durations for security holds come from the exchanges' own published help documentation. Numbers reported during an active recovery can change, and we revise the log when they do. If you can document a freeze event that belongs here, or a correction to one that is listed, write to us at [email protected] and we will check it.
This page is companion to our explainer on what to do when an exchange freezes your crypto, and to the reasons people move to a no KYC crypto exchange in the first place.