§ Crypto

When a freezing order meets a private wallet

The English courts have been willing to treat crypto assets as property. The practical difficulty is service, identification and enforcement once funds sit in a wallet nobody controls but the respondent.

Ref · E-D · 2026-08-04 · 6 min readClass · ConfidentialJuris · England & WalesStatus · Active

Build the application on evidence you can stand behind

An application that rests on a screenshot from a public explorer invites a hard cross examination. What supports it is a documented trace: the source transaction, each hop, the exchange deposit addresses, and the date and method of every observation.

Where the respondent is unidentified, the disclosure order against the exchange is often the real objective, and the quality of the transaction evidence decides whether it is granted quickly.

Move the device work in parallel

While the application is being prepared, the device and account evidence should already be preserved. If the respondent is a former employee or director, their work laptop, work phone and mailbox will usually carry the attribution evidence the ledger cannot supply.

Plan for enforcement from the start

An order that cannot be enforced is an expensive letter. Identify early which exchanges are in scope, what jurisdiction they answer to, and whether any part of the balance is still sitting somewhere a court order can bite.

Instruct the practice

Bring us in early. Defensibility is built, not retrofitted.

Whether you are responding to a regulator, preparing for disclosure, or scoping an internal investigation, start the chain of custody with a short, confidential conversation.

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