Crypto exchange froze my account or withdrawals: how to claim

The case, in five lines

What is brought

A complaint to the exchange's complaints service (article 71 MiCA) and, if it does not return your assets, a claim for specific performance of the custody agreement: delivery of the same units to a wallet in your name or reinstatement of withdrawals, with damages and statutory interest (articles 1101 and 1124 of the Civil Code). Pre-action interim measures where there is a risk of liquidation or of the exchange defaulting on all its customers. If a judge or an authority ordered the freeze, it is that order that must be challenged.

Before which court

The civil section of the Tribunal de Instancia (the first-instance court) for the place where you live, including where the exchange is based in another EU Member State and directs its business to Spain (articles 17 and 18 of Regulation (EU) 1215/2012, Brussels I recast). Before that, the exchange's own complaints service and, if you wish, the complaints service of the CNMV (Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores, Spain's securities regulator), whose report is not binding (article 30 of Ley 44/2002, the Financial System Reform Act). The Autoridad de Defensa del Cliente Financiero (Spain's financial consumer protection authority) is not yet operating.

Deadline

A five-year limitation period from when you could demand your assets, in practice from when the exchange refused your withdrawal or closed the account without handing them over (article 1964.2 of the Civil Code); each written demand interrupts it (article 1973). The exchange must decide your complaint within the period set by its own procedure and, at most, within two months (article 6 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/294); the CNMV, within 90 calendar days. If you obtain interim measures before suing, the claim must be filed within the following twenty days (article 730 of the Civil Procedure Act, LEC).

Who can bring it

The account holder brings the claim, whether an individual or a company; if you contracted as a consumer, before the court for the place where you live. The defendant is the company you contracted with, which is the one named in the current terms and not always the one behind the brand: when MiCA began to apply, many platforms migrated their European clients to a subsidiary licensed in Malta, Ireland, Lithuania or another EU Member State.

Financial risk

If you lose, you will normally be ordered to pay the costs (article 394 LEC). If the exchange proves that you did not provide what it asked for, the closure is shielded by article 7.3 of Ley 10/2010 (Spain's anti-money laundering act), but withholding your assets indefinitely is not. Criminal proceedings concerning the funds may stay the civil claim. With a foreign exchange, service of process and translations add months; and if your coins were in a yield product, you may no longer be their owner but a creditor.

First, what kind of account freeze it is and who decided it

A balance frozen on a crypto exchange has five possible causes, each with its own remedy. A due diligence (KYC) review by the exchange itself, under anti-money laundering rules. A unilateral closure on commercial grounds, relying on the terms. An order from a judge or an authority, which is challenged before whoever issued it, not by suing the exchange. A suspension of withdrawals for all users, which usually signals a liquidity crisis and forces you to act within days. And the platform that asks you to pay to release your balance: that is not a freeze, it is a scam.

Next, identify your counterparty: the terms state which company you contracted with, and it is not always the one behind the brand. Check the registers of the CNMV (Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores, Spain's securities regulator) and of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to see whether it is authorised as a crypto-asset service provider (CASP). Since 1 July 2026, when the transitional (grandfathering) period ended (article 143.3 MiCA), no one may provide those services in Spain without CNMV authorisation or a passport from another EU Member State (article 59). If it is not authorised, the case changes, as you will see below.

Ask in writing what is blocked (trading, deposits or withdrawals), since when, whether there is a court or administrative order and exactly which documents are needed. Also request the statement of position of your crypto-assets, which the custodian must provide whenever you ask (article 75.5 MiCA). And download the full history today, with the blockchain transaction ID (TxID) for each transaction, the emails and the current terms: when the exchange closes the account, your access to all of it disappears.

What AML rules and KYC checks let a crypto exchange do, and what they do not

Since 2021, in Spain, anyone exchanging crypto for euros or acting as a custodian wallet provider is an obliged entity under Ley 10/2010, Spain's anti-money laundering act; if the exchange is established in another EU Member State, the law of that State, which transposes the same directive, applies. The exchange must establish the source of funds and repeat due diligence on existing customers when a transaction is significant in volume (article 7.2): a large deposit from a self-hosted wallet is the typical trigger. And the travel rule in Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 allows it to reject or return a transfer that arrives without the originator's details, or not to credit it until it obtains them (article 17).

The key provision is article 7.3: if it cannot apply due diligence, the exchange must not execute transactions and must end the relationship, with no liability ‘save where there is unjust enrichment’. If it detects indications of money laundering, it reports them to the financial intelligence unit (in Spain, Sepblac) and refrains from executing the transaction (articles 18 and 19). Article 24 (the tipping-off ban) prohibits it from telling you that it has reported anything or is examining a transaction: that is why the support chat keeps repeating stock phrases. But it can, and must, tell you which documents are missing.

What the law does not allow is for the exchange to keep your crypto. The exemption covers refusing to transact and closing the account, not appropriating the balance: the provision carves out unjust enrichment, and MiCA requires the custodian to have procedures to return your crypto-assets as soon as possible (article 75.6). Performance of a contract cannot be left to the discretion of one of the parties (article 1256 of the Civil Code): an open-ended ‘review’, once you have provided everything and with no court or administrative order, loses its legal footing. If it is your bank doing the blocking, payment services law applies and it is a different case.

MiCA: your crypto is still yours even while it is frozen

If the exchange holds your assets in custody, MiCA requires a custody agreement with prescribed minimum content (article 75.1), a register of each client's positions and a statement of position at least every three months and whenever you ask, showing the crypto-assets, their balance, their value and the transfers in the period (articles 75.2 and 75.5). That statement, requested in writing, proves how many units it holds in your name, and refusing to provide it is already a breach.

Your crypto-assets must be segregated from the exchange's own, legally and operationally, out of its creditors' reach even in insolvency (article 75.7), and the provider may not use them for its own account (article 70.1); your euros must, as a rule, be placed with a credit institution or a central bank, in a separate account (article 70.3). Moreover, it must act honestly, fairly and professionally in accordance with your best interests (article 66): a verification loop that asks again and again for what you have already delivered does not square with that duty.

What almost nobody checks is where your coins actually were. What sits in your custodial wallet is still yours; what moved into a yield or lending product (‘earn’, ‘savings’) may already belong to the platform, because those contracts usually transfer ownership to it in exchange for interest, and MiCA does not regulate crypto-asset lending. There you are a creditor, not an owner, and asset segregation does not protect you if the exchange fails. That is why, when withdrawals are suspended for everyone, time is short.

Complaining to the crypto exchange and to the CNMV, which also opens the way to court

Every authorised exchange must have a free complaints-handling procedure, with a template available to you (article 71 MiCA), as specified in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/294. You can complain in Spanish, an official language of the host Member State (article 3). The exchange must acknowledge receipt stating its deadline (article 4) and may not ask you for information it already holds or should legally hold (article 5.2), which breaks the verification loop. Its decision must address every point, give reasons and tell you what remedies are available (article 6).

The deadline is set by its procedure, but it may not exceed two months from receipt of the complaint, save in exceptional situations, where the exchange must explain the delay and give you a date (article 6). If it rejects your complaint, or a month passes without a decision, you may go to the complaints service of the CNMV, which within 90 calendar days issues a reasoned report that neither binds the exchange nor can be appealed (article 30 of Ley 44/2002); if the report goes against it, the exchange must state within a month whether it will put things right. The Autoridad de Defensa del Cliente Financiero (Spain's financial consumer protection authority) is still not operating.

The complaint does double duty. A civil claim is not admitted unless an appropriate dispute resolution method (MASC) has first been attempted (article 5 of Organic Law 1/2025), and for a consumer, the complaint to the exchange is enough when it goes unanswered in time or the answer is unsatisfactory, as is the CNMV's decision (seventh additional provision). If the exchange stays silent, wait the full two months before suing. A company must be able to prove a prior negotiation, such as a confidential binding offer or a documented negotiation with the exchange. Pre-action interim measures do not require that step (article 5.3).

Where to sue a crypto exchange based in Malta, Ireland or Lithuania

If you contracted as a consumer, you may sue in your home courts provided the exchange pursues its business in Spain or directs it to Spain by any means (articles 17.1.c and 18.1 of Regulation (EU) 1215/2012, Brussels I recast). Indications of this include a website and app in Spanish, advertising aimed at Spain, euro deposits from Spanish banks, customer service in Spanish or a MiCA passport notified for Spain. The case is heard by the civil section of the Tribunal de Instancia (the first-instance court) for the place where you live, and the judgment is enforced in Malta or Ireland without any declaration of enforceability (exequatur).

The jurisdiction clause sending you to the courts of Malta does not bind you: against a consumer, only agreements made after the dispute has arisen, or those allowing the consumer to sue in other courts, are valid (article 19). Foreign arbitration imposed in the terms is also unfair: the law treats as unfair any submission to arbitration other than consumer arbitration (article 90.1 of the consumer protection act, TRLGDCU, referred to in article 82.4), and the Court of Justice of the European Union requires the court to assess this of its own motion. The same Court has held that trading frequently and in large amounts does not by itself deprive you of consumer status.

If the exchange is unauthorised or based outside the EU, in the Seychelles or the Cayman Islands, the CNMV's complaints service will not help you: it handles complaints against supervised entities. What helps is reporting the platform to the CNMV, which can issue a warning about it and order it to cease (article 94 MiCA). You can still sue in your home courts (article 18.1), and the excuse that you came ‘on your own initiative’ (reverse solicitation) does not hold if the platform was soliciting clients in the EU (article 61 MiCA). The decisive question lies elsewhere: where it has assets.

Suing the exchange: what to ask for, interim measures and what happens if you lose

The action is contractual: you seek an order for the exchange to perform the custody agreement by delivering the same units to a wallet in your name, or by enabling their withdrawal, with damages and statutory interest (articles 1101 and 1124 of the Civil Code); it is in default from the moment you demand performance (article 1100). Ask for the units, not their euro value on the day of the freeze: if the price rises during the case, the difference is yours, and the value is claimed in the alternative. If it sold your crypto without your instruction, that loss is claimed separately.

Claims of up to 15,000 euros follow the simplified procedure (juicio verbal); above that, the ordinary procedure. If the amount at stake does not exceed 5,000 euros and the exchange is in another EU Member State, the European Small Claims Procedure is available, written and form-based, with no prior attempt at negotiation required (article 5.3 of Organic Law 1/2025). The action becomes time-barred five years after the refusal (article 1964.2 of the Civil Code), and each written demand interrupts the period. If the terms choose another law, you keep the mandatory protection of Spanish law (article 6 of the Rome I Regulation), but the time limit could differ: do not leave it to the last minute.

If there is a risk that the exchange will liquidate your assets, transfer them or stop paying everyone, interim measures are sought before the claim and with no prior negotiation: an order that it keep your crypto-assets segregated and not dispose of them. They require urgency, a prima facie case, a risk arising from delay and the provision of security, and the claim must follow within twenty days (articles 728 and 730 LEC). If you are claiming money from an exchange in another Member State, the European Account Preservation Order makes it possible to freeze its bank accounts there. If you lose, you will normally be ordered to pay the costs (article 394 LEC).

How we run the case, step by step

1. 1

   We preserve the evidence and find out who is behind the freeze

   Together with you, we download the history, each transaction ID and the terms, we identify the company and check its authorisation, and we ask in writing what is blocked, whether there is an order and which documents are missing.

2. 2

   We build the source-of-funds file

   A memo for each deposit that triggered the alert, with the purchase transfers, statements from earlier platforms, your income tax returns, a message signed from your wallet and, where needed, an expert blockchain-tracing report.

3. 3

   We submit it with proof of receipt and designate the withdrawal wallet

   Through the exchange's channel and by email with acknowledgement of receipt, requesting a list of anything missing, the statement of position and a decision date, with a verified wallet in your name to receive the assets.

4. 4

   We complain to the exchange and, if needed, to the CNMV

   A complaint in Spanish through the article 71 MiCA procedure, with two months at most for a decision; if it is rejected or ignored, a complaint to the CNMV. If you are a consumer, this satisfies the requirement in article 5 of Organic Law 1/2025.

5. 5

   We seek interim measures if there is a risk

   If the exchange suspends all withdrawals or announces that it will liquidate your assets, we ask the court, before suing and on provision of security, to order it to keep them segregated and not to dispose of them.

6. 6

   We sue before the Tribunal de Instancia where you live

   Delivery of the same units or, in the alternative, their value, with damages and interest, before the civil section of the Tribunal de Instancia (the first-instance court), within the five-year limitation period and, if interim measures were granted, within the following twenty days; the judgment is enforced across the EU without any declaration of enforceability (exequatur).

The law that applies

• Art. 75 Reglamento (UE) 2023/1114 (MiCA). The custodian must enter into a custody agreement with prescribed minimum content with the client, provide a statement of position at least every three months and on request, have procedures to return the crypto-assets as soon as possible and segregate them from its own estate, out of its creditors' reach. 32023R1114
• Arts. 66 y 71 Reglamento (UE) 2023/1114 (MiCA). The provider must act honestly, fairly and professionally in accordance with the client's best interests and maintain an effective, transparent and free complaints-handling procedure, with a template and timely, impartial investigation. 32023R1114
• Arts. 3 a 6 Reglamento Delegado (UE) 2025/294. They allow complaints in the marketing language or in an official language of the home or host Member State, prohibit asking for information the provider already holds or should hold, and require a reasoned decision, stating the available remedies, within two months at most save in exceptional situations, which must be explained. 32025R0294
• Arts. 7 y 24 Ley 10/2010. Where due diligence cannot be applied, including with existing customers, no transactions may be executed and the relationship must be ended, with no liability save for unjust enrichment; and the customer may not be told that information has been reported to Sepblac. BOE-A-2010-6737
• Arts. 17, 18 y 19 Reglamento (UE) 1215/2012. A consumer may sue, in the courts for the place where the consumer is domiciled, a party that pursues its business in the consumer's Member State or directs it there, regardless of that other party's domicile; against a consumer, only jurisdiction agreements made after the dispute, those widening the consumer's options or those between parties domiciled in the same Member State are valid. 32012R1215
• Art. 30 Ley 44/2002. The CNMV complaints service requires a prior written complaint to the firm and either one month without a decision or a rejection; it decides within 90 calendar days by a reasoned report that cannot be appealed. BOE-A-2002-22807
• Art. 5 y disposición adicional séptima LO 1/2025. A civil claim requires a prior attempt at an appropriate dispute resolution method, except for pre-action interim measures, pre-action disclosure and the European order for payment and small claims procedures; for a consumer, a prior complaint unanswered in time or answered unsatisfactorily is enough, as is a CNMV decision. BOE-A-2025-76
• Arts. 1101, 1124 y 1964.2 CC. Whoever breaches an obligation must compensate the loss; in reciprocal obligations, performance or termination may be demanded, with damages and interest in either case; and personal actions with no special time limit become time-barred five years after performance can be demanded. BOE-A-1889-4763

Each article checked against the consolidated text published in the BOE (the Spanish official gazette).

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