Claims & courts

How to bring a claim against a crypto exchange: demand letter, regulator, arbitration or court

The exchange is holding your balance, closed your account without paying out, or lost your funds through its own failure, and the support tickets have gone nowhere. Before anyone talks about suing, three questions decide almost everything: which company you actually contracted with, what the terms of use say about law and forum, and how much is at stake compared with the cost of the route. This guide walks through the steps in the order they usually work — and says where a claim is not worth bringing.

Updated 17 October 2026 · about 10 minutes to read

Before you start: is this a dispute at all?

Many “disputes” are still open compliance reviews. If the exchange has asked for documents and you have not yet sent a complete package, a claim is premature and may harden its position. Work through the frozen-account guide and the platform notes in Binance, Bybit or OKX blocked your account first.

A claim makes sense when one of these is true:

• The review is complete, the exchange refuses to release the balance and gives no lawful reason.
• The account was closed and the exchange will not return assets, or only to an address or source it chooses.
• Funds were lost because of the exchange’s own failure — an unauthorised withdrawal it should have stopped, a system error, a liquidation outside its own rules.
• The exchange has stopped answering for weeks after a complete submission.

Two situations need a different route. If the exchange is insolvent, the process is a creditor claim — see claims against a bankrupt exchange. If the “exchange” was never real and asks for fees to withdraw, there is nobody to sue in the ordinary sense: read when a platform will not let you withdraw.

Which company you have a contract with

Large exchanges operate through separate companies in different regions, and the brand on the app is not the party to your contract. Find out exactly who you contracted with:

• The terms of use for your region — usually the first paragraph names the legal entity and its country.
• The footer of the exchange website as it appears in your country, and the licence or registration it mentions.
• Your onboarding emails and the name on any bank statement for fiat deposits.
• The public register of the relevant regulator, to confirm that this entity really holds the licence it claims.

Save a copy of the terms of use as they are today, and look for the version that applied when you opened the account or when the dispute arose; exchanges update their terms often.

The formal demand letter

A demand letter is the step that turns a support ticket into a legal dispute. Many terms of use require a written complaint through a specific channel before any arbitration or court claim, and skipping it can delay or derail the case later.

A strong letter contains:

1. Your full name, account ID, registered email and ticket numbers.
2. The legal entity it is addressed to, sent to the complaints address named in the terms (and a copy through the in-app ticket).
3. A short chronology with dates: deposits, the restriction, every request and your answers.
4. What you demand, precisely: release of a specific balance to a named address or bank account, or compensation of a stated amount, or at least a written reason for the decision.
5. The clauses of the terms you rely on — return of customer assets on closure, complaint handling, the exchange’s own obligations.
6. A deadline for a reply, commonly 14 to 30 days, and the next step you will take: a regulator complaint, arbitration or court.

Keep it factual and complete; it will be read again by a regulator or an arbitrator. The appeal to exchange compliance in our free templates is a good starting structure; a demand letter adds the legal basis, the exact demand and the next step.

Regulator complaints: VARA, MiCA, FCA

A regulator does not usually award you money, but a complaint to the right authority often moves a stalled case, because the exchange has to account for how it handled you.

• Dubai — VARA. If your contract is with an entity licensed by Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, the firm must run a complaints process, and you can raise the matter with VARA when that process fails. Check the VARA public register to confirm the licence.
• European Union — MiCA. Crypto-asset service providers authorised under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation must have complaint-handling procedures and deal with complaints promptly and fairly. Complaints go to the national competent authority of the member state that authorised the firm; some countries also have out-of-court dispute bodies.
• United Kingdom — FCA. Many crypto firms are registered with the FCA only for anti-money-laundering purposes. The FCA does not resolve individual disputes, and the Financial Ombudsman Service generally does not cover unregulated crypto activity. A report is still useful as a record and if the firm breaches its registration.
• Offshore entities. Where the contracting company sits in a lightly regulated jurisdiction, regulator leverage is weak and the contract route matters more.

Arbitration or court: what the terms decide

The terms of use almost always contain a governing-law clause and a dispute-resolution clause. Read both carefully; they decide where and how you can bring a claim.

• Arbitration clauses. Many exchanges require disputes to go to arbitration at a named institution, often in a financial centre such as Singapore or Hong Kong. Arbitration is private and the award can usually be enforced in many countries under the New York Convention, but the fees of the institution and arbitrators can be substantial, which makes it unsuitable for smaller amounts.
• Court clauses. Some terms name the courts of a specific country. In the UAE, an entity based in a financial free zone may be subject to the DIFC Courts or the ADGM Courts, which work in English under their own rules.
• Consumer protection may override the clause. In several jurisdictions, including the EU and the UK, a consumer can in some circumstances sue in their home courts despite a foreign forum clause, and unfair terms can be challenged. Whether that applies depends on where you live, how the exchange marketed to you and the exact clause.
• Enforcement is the real question. A judgment or award is only useful if it can be enforced against assets of the right entity. That is easier against a licensed firm in a major jurisdiction than against an offshore company with nothing reachable.

Before filing anywhere, a lawyer should check jurisdiction, the applicable law, the cost of the forum and the realistic path to enforcement together. Getting the forum wrong can cost months.

Deadlines

Several clocks can run at once:

• Contractual deadlines. Some terms of use require you to raise a claim within a set period, for example one year from the event. Courts do not always uphold such clauses, but do not rely on that.
• Statutory limitation periods. These differ by country and type of claim, and can be several years. They depend on the applicable law, which brings you back to the terms.
• Regulator and ombudsman time limits for complaints, usually counted from the firm’s final response.

If the dispute is months old, have the dates checked soon rather than waiting for one more answer from support.

When a claim is not worth it

An honest assessment saves money:

• The amount is small compared with arbitration fees, and there is no regulator with real leverage.
• The exchange is holding funds because of a genuine law-enforcement or sanctions order; it may be legally unable to release them, and the route then runs through that authority.
• The documents you have contradict your own earlier answers to the exchange.
• The contracting entity has no reachable assets and no licence anywhere that matters.

Be wary of anyone who promises a quick win against an exchange for an upfront fee — check them against the warning signs. If you want a sober view of your options, describe the situation; we will tell you free of charge whether the terms, the entity and the amount make a claim realistic.